Written for @corrodedcoffinfest and @steddiesongfics.
and the war he saw lives inside him still
CCF Prompt #15 - Breaking Bad || Steddie Song Fics: Songs Written and Sung By Women | Word Count: 1000 | Rating: M | CW: Came Back Wrong, Lingering Injuries, Blood, Mild Horror Vibes | POV: Steve | Relationship(s): Steddie | Tags: Post S4, Canon Divergence, Hurt/Comfort, The Upside Down: It Lingers
he showed up all wet,
on the rainy front step,
wearing shrapnel in his skin
- I Don't Want to Wait by Paula Cole
Steve hasn't showered in four days. His skin still feels raw from scrubbing away the Upside Down. It'll never wash away. Not totally. Not this time.
Water hurts. Clothes hurt. Everything hurts.
He sits on the couch in his underwear, hunched forward so his scraped back doesn't touch anything. He's exhausted. He can't get comfortable enough to sleep.
Curling his hands against his thighs, fingernails grazing his skin, as he tries to breathe through it. That hurts, too. The deep bruises feel constrictive around his throat, an invisible snake squeezing the life out of him. His windpipe, still battered and sore.
The rain hasn't stopped in days, and it feels fitting.
Lightning flashes, and Steve jumps when he hears the banging on the front door. He can't. He can't deal with whatever it is. He can't get dressed, can't stand the thought of clothes rubbing against his skin right now.
They'll go away.
They don't go away.
Fine. Fuck it.
Steve shuffles towards the door in his briefs. At this point he doesn't fucking care who sees him. He tries to hit the porch light, but it's out. The electric has been wonky since Vecna's bullshit. If he had more energy to spare, he'd be worried the house is gonna burn down.
Yanking open the door, the wind and rain hits him in the face, the chest, and he shivers.
Another flash of lightning illuminates the front porch step, and it's not possible.
It can't be. They left him. Down there. Blood-stained and broken. Dead. Definitely dead.
But it is.
Eddie holds up his hands, and they're shaking, "I didn't know where to go. Trailer's gone. Wayne's gone."
Steve reaches out, grabs him by the forearm. Eddie winces. It's only then Steve sees the big chunk missing on his arm that he just touched far too roughly.
"I'm sorry," Steve says. He's so sorry. He knows that must hurt, knows how bad the infection must be if he's been like this for nearly a week.
Steve doesn't know why Eddie decided to come here, to him, but it doesn't really matter. Eddie's one of them now. You fight monsters and no questions need to be asked. There's no secret password to stay in the club. You're in for life, unfortunately.
"Get in here," Steve says, and wet, muddy, bloody boots stain his mother's precious carpeted stairs.
Steve gets him undressed and into the tub. The state he's in, Steve wonders if they should go to the hospital.
His mouth is stained red, smeared with days old blood.
The wounds are gaping, littered with debris, but aren't bleeding. Not a bit. No oozing, no nothing. Steve's back is still bleeding whenever he dares to move.
Grabbing a pair of tweezers, Steve starts pulling out gravel. Bits of shredded leather. What has to be a tooth from one of the fucking bats.
It's like Eddie's been hit with shrapnel. All the worst things from the Upside Down, burrowing themselves deep within his ragged wounds.
His cheek is torn, his neck. There's a hunk out of his chest, his whole nipple's just fucking gone. It's a lot, too much. He shouldn't be alive, and watching him sit in the warm water, Steve kind of thinks he might not be.
If this is Eddie at all.
Steve doesn't know him well enough to give him any sort of test, he can't catch him in a lie, so he doesn't bother. He just washes his dirty back, the washcloth moving in steady circles.
Eddie leans forward, his forehead resting on his bent knees, and cries.
If he's not human, he's sure doing a good job of acting traumatized. That much Steve believes.
"I don't think I'm me," Eddie says, and Steve brushes his dirty hair off his neck. They need to change the bathwater. It's already black.
"You're you," Steve says, because what else is he gonna say? Oh, yeah. Something's definitely wrong, buddy.
Steve doesn't. Just makes him stand, drains the sludge, starting over.
A mechanical chittering sound rumbles in Eddie's chest, and it makes the hair on the back of Steve's neck stand up. He knows what that is, has known it, has feared it, ever since the ceiling of the Byers living room tore open, bringing hell into his world.
"I'm so hungry," Eddie says, and when he turns to look at Steve, Steve sees it. The way Eddie's mouth is shifting into something too red, too big. Not a full demogorgon bloom, no, something more like the bats had. One extended petal, coming to a point like a bastardized bottom lip. Lined with far too many teeth.
Eddie's eyes are wide.
He's scared.
Steve leans closer, and presses his hand against Eddie's cheek, the one that isn't torn wide.
"It's okay, you're okay," Steve tells him, looking in his eyes. Those? Those are still Eddie's. He's just changed.
That's okay. They all are.
It's not his fault this happened. Fuck, it might still happen to Steve. He doesn't know. He was bitten too, just not as bad. He didn't die.
It may have hurt less if he had.
Steve offers up his forearm, and puts his other hand behind Eddie's head. Guiding him. Rows of sharp teeth scraping his already sensitive skin, and Steve digs his toes into the bath mat to keep from showing any pain.
Eddie's watching him, drinking. Lapping at the dozens of small wounds he's made. Nothing too deep, but enough to feed himself.
He pulls back on his own, blood running down his face as Steve watches his mouth transform back, hiding his secret away.
Then, he's just a guy again.
Just Eddie.
Blood runs down Steve's arm from the punctures, dripping into the bathwater. It hurts, but no worse than anything else he's got going on.
"I feel better now," Eddie says.
"Tilt back," Steve says, pouring a cup of water over his dirty hair.
Underneath him, the water goes murky again in an instant.
If you want to write your own, or see more entries for this challenge, pop on over to @corrodedcoffinfest and @steddiesongfics to follow along with the fun! 🦇🎵
Notes: Paula Cole actually produced her own album This Fire that this song came off, so she did even more than write and sing it! (I never thought I'd used the theme song for Dawson's Creek for this kind of fic, but here we are, haha.)
And Wayne's not dead. Just to be clear. Eddie didn't, like, eat him. Eddie just didn't know where he was at, lol.
The single petal lip design was inspired by this concept art for the demobats.
I didn't even realize I'd filled two prompts in a row with came back wrong fics. That's what happens when you write for prompts out of order. 🤣
Eddie x Original Female Character Pt 8 of Eldath's Priestess 3963 Words
Warning: SMUT (18+ only), description of facial deformities, monster fucking, rough sex, thigh fucking, inhuman shween, biting, messy sex. Allusions to past "carrion" eating, body horror, gore, stitches.
Now on ao3
Thank you @anakinkshamer for being my beta reader
Summary: Eddie can no longer keep up the lie. But can Judy handle the beast he becomes under Vecna's frenzy?
The frenzy was coming soon. The need to hunt gnawed at the back of Eddie’s head, raising what little hackles he had. He insisted they wait to change his stitches. Rather than tell them why, he explained that he needed to prepare himself.
He sat on the couch with Judy nestled in the crook of his arm. And like the magical psychic she was, Judy looked up at him and spoke. “You okay, baby?”
He was silent, contemplating whether to lie again. But one look in her gray eyes, he decided against it. His lips parted to push out a shaky sigh. “Getting hungry.”
“Like normal hungry…?”
He shook his head, his curls dancing over her face. Judy grinned, shimmying out of his arm and sweeping her leg over his hip. She stroked down his shoulders, settling in his lap. Oh. Sexy hungry. Eat you out hungry. She knew it, smiling. “You can feed on me.”
All Eddie did was just stare at her shoulder, face sullen. No amount of her grinding herself against him could stir him out of it. Her smile dropped as she dismounted, kneeling between his legs. Her fingers cradling his face, trying to catch his eyes.
“It’s not a joke.” He whispered, “I don’t know what to do.”
“Okay,” Judy cooed, “okay, baby. What did you do before?”
He managed a choked whine, clamping his eyes shut and shaking his head. His chest heaved in short bursts, hyperventilating before letting go in a cry from behind his teeth. His brow dropped onto her shoulder, crying against whatever fabric she was wearing.
He shuddered like a flower caught in a harsh wind, cradled in Judy’s arms. Finally, he collected himself enough to tell her. Admit his most horrible act as he dragged himself through hell.
“I feasted on the…” He blinked hard, regaining himself, “the dead. Carrion. Like a vulture. There were so many, and I didn’t even think. It was like something was eating through me. I was still hungry, my stomach felt empty, but the nagging pain, the creature in my arms and legs, thrashing behind my eyes, was at peace. It would happen every week, and when my mouth would heal, every time, the seams would split open again. It’s why I keep my face stitched up. Why I stayed away, even when I had a mind of my own.” Eddie’s soft gaze met Judy’s, pleading for some solace in his confession, “I’m a monster, Judy.”
But Judy was silent. Her heart ached, broken for a boy who was never malicious. Not for as long as she knew him. Taking a beat with a soft smile in her eyes, she made her decision. She would take care of him. She gave his shoulders a squeeze before standing. “Is it blood, or just flesh?”
“Both.”
“Does the source matter?” She turned to the window.
“No.”
“Okay,” she watched the cars pass by her house, “let me take care of it.”
-------------
Who knew meat was so heavy? Several pounds of shoulder, brisket, and offal (edible organs) hung off her body from various plastic bags. The last was cradled in her arms in a paper bag. A liter of pigs blood. She was still bristling at the interaction she had with the butcher.
“I don’t keep Kosher.” Was all she should have had to say. Not play 20 questions with a man she’d never see again, God willing.
She entered to see Wayne and Margie at the dinner table. Eddie was hiding out in her room.
“Did he tell you what was going on?”
“Didn’t have to, a lot of people have been swooped at by those bat things tonight. Those weird beasts running in the woods. Animals dead. Must be like a feeding frenzy.” Wayne said plainly, nodding to Judy’s bounty, “those for him?”
“Yeah, enough to equate to a quarter of an adult male. I hope it’s enough to sate it and make it easier for him.” She admitted, hauling the bags to the counter. “Don’t know how to prepare it, though. I don’t want him to feel like an animal.”
Margie rested a hand on Judy’s shoulder, “I think I can help with that. I’ve read all about preparing offal. Those will be untouched. As for the meat, I think giving him a variety will make it more sensible. Let’s unwrap what we will use now, stash the other in the cooler. The new fridge will be delivered tomorrow.”
Judy’s aunt was always a wonderful cook, even if there was no actual cooking involved. Her palate was second to none, and in another life, she would have easily beaten the best chefs of the era. Her plate dressing was the most notable, as she could dress even the most grotesque creation beautifully. The way her hands sliced and handled the cuts of beef and pork, the way she heated the blood and thickened it to form a gravy, it was as if she was preparing the grandest meal for the highest king.
As Judy carried the tray to her bedroom, she couldn’t help but marvel at the meal. Eddie met her at the door, mouth covering his face. His eyes wide in fear, Eddie nudged Judy out of the way as he bolted to the bathroom. He stopped in the doorway, looking to the tray in Judy’s hands.
“Oh uh, thanks!” He slipped the food from her hands.
Before she could say, “you’re wel-” He closed the door and turned on the fan.
There was no click of the lock, but Judy respected the little privacy that piece of wood provided him. She simply slid down the wall beside the door, sitting and listening for him to call for her when he was finished.
But she didn’t hear him speak, only hiccupping sobs and feverish gnashing of teeth ricochetting off the walls of the shower. He groaned and sighed as the meat traveled down his throat, the beast within him sounding pleased. He slurped the thickened blood and continued to consume all that was before him. The fan covered up any other sounds. In fact, the only one who could hear anything was Judy. Eddie would appreciate that once the frenzy was over.
That’s when she heard him whine, hyperventilating. No more chewing sounds, no more scarfing and grunting. There was a thump on the shell of the shower, then the sound of the faucet starting and then the shower head. Another whine, and then sobs, as quiet as he could be.
“Eddie, are you okay?” Her fist gently rapped at the door, “Can I come in?”
“Yeah,” came a breathy voice, before trying again to be heard, “yeah.”
She did so, sliding through the smallest crack she could make before closing the door behind her. Eddie was in the shower, the curtain had been removed. He had rummaged through the garage when Judy was out gathering his meat, bringing out a large, heavy drop-cloth. He had laid it to cover the entirety of the floor from the tub to the sink. It collected the water droplets that sprayed from the shower, mixing with the specks of viscera from his feast.
“I…uhm…I popped a stitch.” He said, the tremble in his voice returning.
Judy was finally able to take him in, or all that he would let her see. His legs were folded in on himself, hiding his pelvis. The blood diluted by the water washing from his body and swirling down the drain.
“It’s okay. We were going to take them out anyway, clean you up before we put in new ones.” She smiled, reaching through the shower’s stream to stroke what little of his face she could reach.
His mouth was swollen and red, covered in blood, each time he moved his jaw to speak the cracks in his face split, straining against the stitches. The inner stitch on either corner of his mouth was gone, no doubt down the drain. “Can you…can you cut the others? Release my mouth it really hurts. I can’t do it myself, I’m…” He grit his back teeth, “I’m scared.”
Judy turned off the shower, allowing the rest of the water to pour out the drain. She retrieved the cuticle scissors and doused the blades in isopropyl alcohol, volunteering her own towel to Eddie, letting him gently pat his aching face dry. She didn’t notice how his eyes fluttered closed when he smelled it. His hands immediately covering his cock and his jaw clamping back a moan.
They managed to configure themselves in a way that had Eddie’s head leaning back and resting on a folded towel, Judy leaning over him with one light bulb able to not be eclipsed by Judy’s puffy hair. Thankfully the tissue around the stitches had been moved enough to disturb buildup.
“You ready, big guy?” Judy asked, pushing her glasses back up her nose. Eddie nodded and closed his eyes. His body tensed to keep himself still, to ease the process for her. She leaned in and began to carefully snip through each stitch, the grody cotton falling away slowly as the doubled-up thread gave way to each close of the blades.
Judy’s neck was all Eddie could see, and smell. The expanse from shoulder to shoulder, chin to sternum, exposed to him and all that entailed. Her smell, the warmth from her skin. Each inhale he took sent an intense wave of need to his cock.
Unbeknownst to Judy, Eddie’s genitals had swollen far beyond human comparison. As if fluid beneath the skin had gathered and smoothed out and imperfections. It was softer in feeling but larger in girth. Clear fluid streaming out of the tip, hot and itching for her. And it ached. Oh, how his entire lower half ached. He clamped his hands around it, trying to slow it down, but that did nothing but make it worse. Stroking did too. Like it ached for one thing only, the thing that had awoken it in the first place.
Judy.
She was so engrossed in the procedure, obsessing over gently snipping each stitch, she hadn’t seen anything else. The top two lines of stitches had released, and the skin pulled back. She saw the gums around his canines and pre-molars had receded, and the tooth itself growing into the bone, making them bigger, tougher. The edges of the skin were raw. His top lip, which resembled the top lip of a Demogorgon maw, released upward to show his incisors, the gums had receded there too, but not to the same extent. The teeth meant for tearing meat were strengthened, where there would be porous dentine and bone was more enamel. If she didn’t love him, his face would have been unnerving.
But to Judy, she was just sad. Morose even over the immense pain this first transformation must have been for him.
She moved to each cheek, each stitch clipped wave way to his back teeth. All the way to his top two wisdom teeth. After the pre-molars, the rest of the teeth were unchanged. The last stitch strained slightly, causing Eddie’s focus to return to his mouth. He folded his lips and cheeks, firming the corners of his mouth, allowing her to snip the last.
“Good job, Eddie.” She sighed, placing a kiss between his brows. Eddie’s hum was more lustful than proud. “Can you keep your mouth closed for the other side?”
“Mm.” He answered, forcing all his facial muscles together. She continued, this time the tension was minimal. A relief each time the thread gave to the blades, but the tension continued to build elsewhere.
His chin was the final set. The hardest to cut through. The one he obsessed over, sewing it together in a cross-stitch, keeping it from separating at all. That was how he could talk, by keeping his hands over the other fissures, he could leave his bottom lip and chin to move. Without it, his face was unrecognizable, and any hope of talking was gone.
One of Eddies hands gripped Judy’s wrist, soaked by his cock and the juices that flowed from it. She felt it drip down her arm as she stopped.
He shook his head.
“You want to wait until we can fix it immediately?”
He nodded.
Judy’s eyes traveled down the stitches, like a trail to finally bring her focus to his swollen cock laying against his abdomen. “Oh my God, Eddie. What?”
Eddie’s other hand lifted from it to form his mouth again, not realizing it would reveal him completely. She stopped him before he could with a stern “no.”
He kept his lips pursed, forcing his maw closed as Judy ran hot water from the faucet and put a bar of soap in his hands. In his panicked and feral mind, he had forgotten about cleanliness, haphazardly washing his hands before forming a cup around his maw, opening a gap between his fingers to allow sound to emanated from the chamber. “Hurts…really bad. Like…not infected bad but…I just. Your smell. It’s…” He blinked back his shame, kneeling in the tub as his need dripped down his balls. “I tried when you were focused, see if it would calm it down.”
It took her a moment to realize what he was trying to say. The frenzy must heighten other desires besides food, other hungers.
“It just made it worse. I need…”
“Okay.”
“What?”
“Okay, let’s do this. Holy shit…” She looked at it. “Uhm…We’d need to be in a different position. Because that’s not fitting when I’m on my back. Shit but I need something under my hips if we’re doing it from behind.” Judy continued to stew. She slipped out of the bathroom, returning with her boombox, Ride the Lightning still inside. She continued to mutter to herself regarding logistics and the ethics of having sex with him in a feral state. She closed the door and locked it, taking off a piece of clothing at a time, starting with her earrings and ending with her jeans. Breasts still contained behind a front-clasped bra, panties at her hips. She finished her torrent of planning, “Drop cloth should be fine.”
She turned to Eddie, also on his feet, gazing at his face in the mirror. From a distance, he opened his maw, tongue sliding along his back teeth. Getting on her knees, she gazed up at him. His eyes left his own reflection in the mirror, to see it in her glasses instead. Judy finally got to see it, the petals of his cheeks moving independently from his jaw, flashes of teeth and reddened gums. The bright yellow of his eyes returning.
His claws reached out, removing her glasses for her and placing them on the counter. His talon pressed down on the boombox’s switch. With the slam on his drums, Lars and Cliff opened the guitars into their two-note cry. A startling opening to the album’s title track.
Intense. Guitar licks like you wouldn’t believe. Most of all, it was loud. Loud enough to cover the sound of a hard fuck.
Judy’s favorite.
She loved to fuck to Ride the Lightning.
Judy couldn’t see the details of Eddie’s face, just streaks of red and pink blending into his pale skin. When he got close enough to her, his maw was pinched together, pressing his forehead against hers. His claws caressed her face and neck, chest beginning to rise and fall deeper. Her scent filling his nose, striking the iron in his core. He was stalling. There was no doubt. She could hear him grinding his molars, clenching to control.
“Eddie, baby, it’s okay.” She said, her voice nearly hypnotic to his frazzled nerves, “I’ll be fine.” Her hand reached down and ghosted her fingertips over his swollen cock, more need seeping from his slit. “Take what you need.”
His breathing came out stuttered, short inhales and exhales before one long sigh. Judy took a chance, her lips gently pressing against the petals of his top lip. Another long sigh passed through his nose, his hips gently bucked into the air.
Eddie’s glowing eyes narrowed playfully, parting from her and crawling to slot himself behind her. There was a sense of excitement in Judy’s body, heart fluttering down to her pussy. In this circumstance, logically, she knew she should have been on her guard. But in the end, her lust won out.
She wanted to try it.
Facing the locked door, palms against the coarse drop cloth, Judy readied herself. She shimmied out of her panties with the help of Eddie’s claws. His hot shaft rested along the crack of her ass. Any touch let to a stream of pre-cum to leave Eddie’s cock. He grasped himself and stroked the head along her folds, painting her with it. Sinking the tip in a few times, guiding his own need inside of her with his talons. Judy purred at the attention, but her knees and shoulders ached already.
Facing away from him, she believed she could hide her pout. But the sigh was audible enough, and Judy’s eyes widened when she realized it. Looking over her shoulder to see Eddie’s blurry but furrowed brow, his eyes narrowed again.
He grasped her hips, sinking himself inside of her. Pulling her closer and closer until it stopped. In Judy’s surprise, she had clenched. His right hand ran up her spine, warm palm and a little pressure, as if to say, “relax.”
She breathed deep into her abdomen, lips parting in a moan. Eddie continued to thrust himself in.
The cock was softer, stiff enough to drive into her, but the skin itself gave as he fucked her. With each pass, his need milked out from his tip and flowed into her. Eddie continued to grow more mindless, needing more, more, more.
Judy's arms weakened as he kept going. From behind her, Eddie's maw hung open, his pointed tongue tasting the air as he panted. Finally, her arms gave out as she slowly rested herself on the drop cloth, arms folded to support her head. Each time he drew out from her, their combined juices fell down her legs.
Eddie's claws gripped her hips harder as he took on her weight. Without his hands or stitches, he could not speak. But with this little lift, he was whispering to her “let go.”
Judy could sense it, surrendering control to Eddie as he continued to fuck into her. All he had to do was keep her up, keep her close. One hand moved up to grip her shoulder, the other remaining on her hip as he bounced her on his swollen cock. Her entrance finally gave way to the swollen base, and she let out a whine from her gritted teeth.
Their combined need poured from her with each draw of his cock, his pace growing more frantic. Judy had receded into herself completely. Her clit remained untouched, and each sensation remained somewhat muted. This was not for her pleasure.
Eddie pulled out a little too far, and when attempting to slide back in with the next thrust, his cock missed and ran between her thighs. His tip catching her clit and leading to a gasp from her lips. He froze.
She unfolded her arms, sinking her palms back to the floor. “Fuck, Eddie please do that again.”
Her thighs instinctively tried to close, and rather than keep them open, Eddie readjusted himself. He pushed her thighs closed, bracketing his calves on either side of hers. Her soft skin enveloped his cock as he drew himself back. Just as it had inside her, his cock gave way and expelled more from his tip. His cock stroking her lips and clit as he did it again. And again. Judy's head reared back, eyes closed with a smile, finally receiving attention as her skin buzzed.
Eddie's face drove forward, bending over her to press himself into the side of her neck. His maw opened to her skin to taste as he returned to his thrusting. The tip of his cock rubbing against her with such fervor, she quickly doubled over, trembling. It was too much. But she wouldn't deny him. No fear of wrath, nor sting of shame kept her, oh no, it was his hunger she fell prey to.
The old Eddie's hunger, amplified by the mindless rutting, his spit and need covering her body. Her nerves were alight in pleasure. Tears springing from her closed lashes. Her jaw kept clenched. She hung her head down, opening her eyes to see it. The head of his swollen cock slipping between her thighs, the release growing cloudier with each pass.
He was getting close, sweat dripping down their bodies as Judy lifted her head. Eddie followed suit, pulling her back with him until his back hit the floor. She felt him cling to her, trusting her to keep her own thighs shut as he continued rutting. His heels dug into the floor, legs tensed as he kept himself up. His teeth sunk into Judy's shoulder, making her scream out, covered by Kirk Hammet's wailing solo that continued to blast through the boombox.
His whole body tensed beneath her as his cock erupted, cum streaming from between her thighs, each pass leading to another fountain of him. He emptied himself onto Judy's skin, hotter than she had ever felt before. Everything below her navel and above her knees was soaked in him, below them as well.
Finally, he was empty. The frenzy was gone. He released her shoulder from his maw. His arms weakened but still stayed around her. Judy remained still, trembling. His bite surprised her. His power surprised her.
Not being able to hear his voice, that scared her.
No skin was broken on her shoulder, but the bruises were deep. Eddie had never bitten her before, not like this. A little nip occasionally, but not a whole chomp. She was the one more likely to do that. And even then, it was rare.
Judy didn’t know what to do. She was completely soaked. Eddie’s cock still clamped between her thighs. But, to her relief, Eddie was willing to take control. He laved his tongue over her bitemark before kissing it as well as he could. His hands guided her left arm around his neck, his hands sliding beneath her thighs. He sat up, pulling his legs beneath him. Their mess fell from between Judy’s parted thighs, a slight hop and he balanced on the balls of his feet.
“I don’t think you can do that. You’re not strong enough.” Judy said, voice coming out like a strained whisper. But Eddie simply breathed deep, picking her up as he rose to his full height. Judy’s free hand scrambled to find something to grip on to. She watched his eyes move from her to the toilet. She lifted the lid and Eddie set her down, letting her feet finally reach the floor. She stood, hand resting on the counter, giving her a way to guide herself on to the toilet.
As she did what she needed to do, Eddie started the shower once again. The drop cloth caught the torrent of sex and famine, but as Eddie nodded to the shower, she realized she would not be the one to clean up. She was back in his hands.
He joined her, taking turns under the water. She gazed at him, vision still obscured, water blocked by his head. His maw opened into a smile, too wide to be human, before leaning his head to the side. The showerhead sprayed water directly into Judy’s face, before once again being blocked by Eddie’s head.
As Judy sputtered in surprise, backing up to rub her eyes, she smiled to herself.
Thank God, he’s back.
Phew, that was intense! Thank you so much for reading my loves. I will start giving myself a less intense deadline. New chapters every weekend.
Let me know if you want to be added to the tag list!
tag list: @loserboysandlithium
Eddie x Original Female Character Pt 6 of Eldath's Priestess 4184 words
Warnings: SMUT (18+ only), descriptions of bodily injuries and scars, borderline grotesque facial deformities, Monster F*cking (Eddie is not quite human anymore), reunion sex, oral (m receiving), fingering (f receiving), p in v, unprotected sex (oral contraceptive implied), creampie, body worship.
Now on ao3
Thank you again to @anakinkshamer as my beta reader.
Summary: Judy's trip with the old "Silly Simon" leads her to Eddie's location. But he is no longer the Eddie she knew.
Notes: This is my magnum opus. I hope you enjoy our new Eddie.
Judy had returned to the void she had tried to forget, walking through the nothingness.
She continued to think of him, her Eddie. From when she closed her eyes, she focused solely on him. How he smelled, how he sounded, how he looked at her with warmth and wonder.
The air grew colder, smelling of burned trees and rot. In the distance, she saw it, a rounded rock formation known by the youth of the area. A common make-out spot that she had yet to see in person. Eddie never took her there, insisting on being closer to the lake itself.
“People are assholes,” he’d explain, “and I don’t like sharing your attention with assholes.”
She approached the rock, gazing upon the newly killed animal, mauled beyond recognition. Her heart sank as she instinctively brought her hand to her chest, face crumpling in sorrow.
Her attention was brought to a hoard of screeching from high above. Still nothing to be seen, but she still followed the noises. The ground began to slant down beneath her feet, she found balancing to be easy as she made her way, the cold soon growing damp. A cave, most likely near the grave of lover’s lake, along the shoreline.
A shaking sigh echoed from within. She continued, rushing into its craggy stone mouth. There had been doubts through this experience, the biggest being the ghost of Joey’s death. But all of those fears melted away when she saw a trembling Eddie, or at least a mop of filthy curls hanging over a huddled body. She reached for him, touching his warm shoulder before being yanked away.
Judy snapped awake, being shaken by her aunt’s hands and voice. She shot upright, meeting her aunt’s gaze. “What?”
“Oh, thank fuck, you stopped breathing for a second.” Margie sighed, wrapping her arms around Judy and bringing her into an embrace.
The others had gathered due to Margie’s panicked attempts at waking Judy. They now watched as the young woman pried herself from her aunt and take a deep breath.
“South of skull rock, along the tip of Lover’s Lake, there is a cave. He’s alive, scared shitless but alive.” Her voice regained its strength, bolstered by the excited and relieved exhales, “but there are things in the trees. I don’t think we can risk navigating at night.”
Judy gave the parameters, but her brain was not in a position for strategy. The shrooms were still affecting her, as she wondered into the kitchen and laid on the tile. It swam like white water. She liked that.
It had been some time before they had hammered out a foolproof plan. All that was left was for Judy’s trip to end, which took longer than desired.
Late in the afternoon, it was time to put the plan into action.
“If we’re going to get him, we have to be in teams. One to locate the cave, the other to extract him.”
Judy, Robin, Steve, Dustin, and Lucas would start at Skull rock and find the cave. Upon doing so, they would radio to the pickup team and wait for extraction. Hopefully, Eddie was still there.
The plan seemed straight-forward and simple, get there and get out. Judy wasn’t sure if it was the shrooms still lingering or if she was incredibly naïve, but she was confident in their ability to carry this out.
That was before she was met with Skull Rock and turned south. Trees. So many trees. The creatures were quiet, no doubt sleeping. She had hoped for a straight shot to the cave, as her walk through the void was. But she stumbled through the woods all the same, trailing behind Steve and Robin who took point, makeshift weapons at the ready.
What took mere seconds in her dream took a half an hour, and the sun was beginning to set. They reached the mouth of the former Lover’s Lake, the ground slanting into its smoking maw.
“No way in hell we’re reaching that.” Steve said, stopping amongst the grass, “you sure it’s here?”
Judy rubbed the back of her head, as if to stimulate a memory from her trip. But nothing. She saw nothing else. Her back to the rock, she walked, the ground slanted and the trees shrieked, the cave was wet.
Wait. the cave. It was wet. Damp. So, there was moving water near it.
She looked to the two younger boys, “Can you use your boy scout senses and find water?”
Lucas shrugged, “I can use my eyes.” He motioned to a deer slowly making its way through the woods. “It’s either going towards water, or away from it. My money is on towards.”
Without a doubt, Lucas was right. With each step they took through the thin tree line, the earth began to soften, plants flowering in the path of the moistened earth. Within ten minutes, they had reached it. Along a brook, beneath a small cliff, there was the craggy stone mouth of the cave.
But the anxiety froze Judy, barring her from going in. “I’ll call the location,” she insisted.
Dustin handed over the walkie-talkie before following into the cave behind the others. After a moment of conveying their location, reading the numbers off the notepad in her hand, and receiving assurance that it was received, she turned to the mouth of the cave.
Silence.
How far did it go?
How far had they gone?
Taking those first few steps, the cave felt as it had in her dream. Passing through the threshold, she could finally hear their voices. Very distant but discernable.
“Jesus christ,” said Dustin.
“What happened to your face?” Lucas questioned.
“Why the hell didn’t you come back?” asked Steve.
“Wayne’s been a mess.” Robin added.
“I couldn’t go back.”
Judy breathed a sigh of relief.
Eddie.
“How the fuck do you think I could come back to them? I mean look at me.” His voice grew louder as she stumbled through the cave, hands running along the walls to navigate. In her desperation to reach him, she had forgotten to pull out her flashlight. Still, she made her way to the voices of her friends, and to her Eddie.
“You know she was blind, for like…a month? When we first met, she was seconds away from having a seizure. Then she was blind. But I didn’t care. I read to her. I helped her. I liked her. Then those guys came in, took her away for days. One morning she was back and,”
Judy finally reached them. His voice came loud and clear from behind the wall of teens, flashlights pointed at the back of the cave.
“She could see again, and she looked at my face…” Eddie cracked a smile, hidden behind his black, necrotic fingers, “I knew I wanted her to look at me like that for the rest of my life.” He ran his hands over his face and through his matted hair, “but not like this.” The young man turned to face his former allies, bringing his now grotesque visage into the many flashlight beams.
Two stitches, about two inches long, from each corner of his mouth. Two more from his top lip, reaching an inch below each eye. And the final one, down his chin, black and filthy. It looked as if it were formed from a Demogorgon-like maw into a mouth that could speak again. The mess took away from his eyes in the darkness of the cave, a striking yellow swirling where the deepest and kindest brown had once resided.
“What are you talking about?” Judy, incensed, pushed through the group to take her place at the front. There was a lull in her movements, as if to gage the danger, but the ache in her chest took over and she plowed another two steps forward. “Show me.”
Eddie instinctively shrunk away before she cupped his face in her hands. He softened in her familiar touch, immediately tucking his chin down to hide. Her grip forced him to meet her gaze.
The flashlights gave her a clear view of every grody stitch, stale sweat on his skin, his eyes glowing back at her. Her thumb ran along his cheek, right beside the highest stitch, as if trying to wipe the grime from his skin. “Eddie…”
“Mm?” He managed to hum, jaw clenching back a cry.
Her hands moved from his cheeks down his arms, taking his taloned hands in hers and bringing them to her shoulders. His blackened grasp clutching to her as she released them, returning to his cheeks, bringing his gaze back to hers. “You can touch me.” She whispered. His hands softened, running down the front of her jacket, over her buttons and homemade patches, before settling on her hips.
“Should we…. go?” Robin asked.
“No. It’s okay…” Judy sighed, smiling up at Eddie, “let’s get you out of here.”
Eddie stepped out of the shower, the warm plush mat beneath his feet. He couldn’t bring himself to look in the mirror, fearing the horror he’d face in its reflection. The commotion downstairs had quieted down. Judy’s voice was absent. His darkened fingers and thickened claws gripped the fluffy pink towel and held it to his face, taking a deep breath. It smelled like her, like home. Using it to dry himself off, he was able to take inventory of his healed wounds. A massive chunk of his right leg was gone, the memory of crawling on his belly through the Upside-Down came to him, shown by the scars across his chest. Then there were his two matching wounds, now forming inch deep pits over each hip, discolored but smoothed by regenerated skin.
At least he smelled better.
He wrapped the towel around his hips and exited from the bathroom, swiftly ducking into Judy’s open bedroom and closing the door, clicking the lock behind him. Only to be met by his lover’s wide eyes, a smile creeping across her face.
The butterflies in Judy’s stomach reached into her throat, forcing out a “um…”
She took him in, drinking up his form and trying not to cry out in joy. She simply closed her lips, tamping down her smile, “your jammies are in the same drawer they’ve always been.”
“Kept them?” he asked, voice slightly croaked from the shower steam.
“Of course I did. You know me, can’t let go.”
He fished out a pair of Hawkins Tigers sweatpants and the old Led Zeplin shirt he had given her. “Can’t believe you talked me into buying these school spirit pants like a chump.”
“That was when I thought we would graduate together.” Judy turned away, facing the curtained window at the far end of her room, giving him some privacy.
She heard Eddie’s casual footsteps approach her from behind. “After all the things you’ve done to this body, you still worry about my modesty.” He reached out, running the back of his claws along her arms, just as he had without them many times before. His fingers slowly traced down to her hands, enveloping them in his. She felt his gentle breath against the back of her ear, lulling her to close her eyes. He brought one hand to his lips, pressing a kiss on her wrist. The other hand guided behind her, pressing her open hand against his naked cock.
Her eyes snapped open as she whipped around to look at him, slipping her hands from his grip and placing them on his chest, scarred, pale, but just as warm.
“You dropped your towel…” She brought herself closer to him.
“Oopsie.” He smiled, his stitches separating slightly to make his grin a little uncanny. Judy’s fingers reached up to his face, ghosting over his stitched mouth. His smile faded slightly, grabbing her hands and pressing them to his flesh.
“Do they hurt?” she whispered, a tremble in her voice.
“No, baby,” he lied. “Just feel a little weird, is all.”
In truth, the pull was the least of his worries. It was the splitting that occurred when he needed to feed that caused him the most pain. The stitches kept his Demogorgon maw in the shape of a human mouth, but the skin would still split along the seams, the edges becoming fresh each week.
But Judy didn’t need to know about that, not yet.
The feeding frenzy was at the will of the hivemind. At the will of Vecna, as the bats and monsters were. But he had more control than the others. Sleeping in Judy’s bed, hearing her sweet voice and heart-wrenching sobs through the veil had forced him to stay. There was hope that once the Big Bad was defeated, it would be over. He’d have control and would most likely die.
But Judy didn’t need to know that either. She just needed to know that he was here, with her, for as long as possible.
“Tell me honestly, buttercup.” He took one step back, opening his arms and releasing her fingers from his grasp, “is my dick weird?”
She finally looked at him, all of him. The scars and abrasions healed over, purples, magentas, and blacks. Her eyes scanned down each extremity, hands and feet, fingers and toes, were now a dark purple, no longer a necrotic black as they had been. The tips of his fingers and toes, along with his talons still remained black as pitch. His eyes looked more jaundiced than cadmium yellow. It was almost as if being separated from that hellish dimension was healing him.
His cock, however, remained the same. She smiled softly, “not any weirder than it already was.”
He wiggled his hips slightly, his member rocking side to side, making Judy hold back a snort. She forced the corners of her mouth downwards, nostrils flaring. But she was losing the battle. Her eyes darted to her ceiling, but Eddie’s approach guided her gaze to his face. He walked forward and took her hands in his, placing them on his face and taking a deep breath, smelling her palms.
Judy pushed her hands up into his hair, his curls combed out in the shower. Her body pressed against his. He was the naked one now, vulnerable in his lover’s arms. And Judy sheltered his body with hers. She gazed into his big brown eyes, resting their foreheads together. “Hi…” she muttered.
“Hi…” Eddie answered.
“I missed you.” She blinked, her lips finally opening into a smile, “I missed you so much.” Her eyes began to burn as her vision grew blurry.
Eddie snaked his arms around her, walking backwards and drawing her to her bed. “I’m here now, Judy.” The mattress hit the back of his knees and he sat down, his face against her middle, nose to navel, the crown of his head skirting just below her breasts. His grip stayed around her, pulling her bare belly to his face, and pressing his lips against her skin. He closed his eyes, burying his face into the softness of her tummy. A sigh escaped his lips.
“Glad I decided to wear my cropped shirt,” she muttered, running her fingers through his hair. She heard him sniffle, then a broken sigh, knowing it well. Her chest ached, pleading softly, “Lay back, baby.”
He finally separated from her, eyes wet from tears. Slowly, he laid back on to her pillow, grateful that the bed remained unmade. Judy followed, pulling her shirt over her head and tossing it to the side. Her breasts dropping back into place, Eddie’s lips parted in a delighted smile, glassy eyes shining up at her. “God you’re somethin’ else, Judy.”
She dipped into a kiss, before traveling down to the scars on his neck. “Tell me if I hit something that hurts.”
“Mhm,” Eddie closed his eyes, his muscles relaxing as his nerves began vibrating with anticipation. Though he had made the mistake of getting his dick sucked by other people, it was never as good. There was something she did that no one else bothered to do. She savored every inch of skin, took her time. Her lips and tongue would latch onto his tenderest parts, lap at him, breathe him in, leave him reeling. She didn’t just suck him off. She went down on him and made him feel like a god. He was glad he snagged her before someone else did.
His treasure. His princess.
Eddie’s grip on her hair relaxed Judy in a way she couldn’t explain. She finally reached the matching scars on his torso, whispering blessings against the pits that were left behind. They were soft, as new skin tended to be, and tender beneath her lips. Her lover squirmed slightly, causing Judy to stop.
“You okay, Eddie?” She asked, “did I hurt you?”
He shook his head, damn near nonverbal as his cock stood, leaking for her.
“You want me to keep going, or just to suck you now?”
The grip in her hair tightened, regaining his composure. His eyes opened, dark and stern. His gaze flicked to his cock, a quiet command. “Your lips, there, now,” and Judy did as he said.
She left out a giggle, almost bouncing as she made her way between his legs. He stopped her half-way, ass pointed at the wall, knees against his scarred thigh. His hand released her hair, running his claws down her back and down her ass, gathering her shorts and panties as he went, pulling them down.
“What? You wanna pet my pussy while I take care of you?” she asked, kissing from his hip to his mound. His scent smacked her in the face when her nose rested on his dried curls, setting her in a hungry trance. It was muted from his shower, but it still lingered.
The back of his talons ran down her naked folds. She took that as the command, her hand taking his shaft, lifting it, and diving to the base of his cock, sucking at the warm crook between the base and his velvet sack. Her nose nestled in his curls fully, breathing him in. She let out a moan. Eddie opened his mouth, gasping for air for a moment before resting his head against the wall, lips curled in a cheshire smile, gazing down his nose as he watched Judy enjoy his cock.
And she did, drooling on his shaft as she ran her tongue to his tip. Her lips wrapped around the head of his cock, tongue running across it, lapping up his release and swallowing it. Her fist softly stroked his shaft. God, she missed the taste. He was perfectly sweet for her, and according to Eddie, she was just as sweet for him.
He ran his fingers along her pussy again, gathering her slick before bringing his claws to his lips. He hummed, satiated, like a bear with a pot of honey. His hand returned to its place, gently slipping his middle digit in her entrance, worried his new manicure would scratch her.
She moaned and opened her mouth more, taking him into her mouth almost fully. Her head slowly and gently bobbing along his length. Her tongue extended along his shaft, allowing him to slide into her mouth and grace the back of her throat. Spit pooled at her lips and ran down to his curls. Her throat clicked around his cock, a gentle whimper accompanying it.
Eddie’s left hand finally gathered her hair in a makeshift ponytail, letting him get a better look at her final few bobs. Their eyes met. “That’s my girl. Suckin’ me so good.” He whispered.
She lifted off his cock, jaw aching as she passed his shaft along her slightly parted lips. “Missed your cock, Eddie.” She whimpered, finally pulling away to catch her breath. In the calmness, she realized Eddie was three fingers in her pussy, knuckle deep. She was so soaked and soft that she hardly noticed. A rarity for her.
“You have been sucking and clenching around these fingers the whole time, buttercup.”
She shrugged, cheeks growing red with embarrassment. “I just…missed this.”
“My cock?”
Judy’s lips tightened, sitting up from her place, shaking her head in earnest, “You know it’s not just-”
“I know, Judy. I’m just lightening the mood.” He smiled, drawing his fingers from her with a wet shlick. He brought his claws to his lips, sucking each one while gazing at her.
Her gaze softened. “You want me to finish you off?”
Eddie shook his head, opening his arms. “C’mere,”
Giddy, Judy bounced back up to his lap, swinging her knee over him, resting her soaked pussy on his skin. “Fuck you’re so warm.” She smiled. Eddie grinned back, talons running through her hair before yanking her down into a sloppy kiss, flavors mixing on their tongues. All it took was a roll of his hips for her to slide down half-way on to his cock. Her pussy swallowing him whole as she eased the rest of the way down.
The valley of her breasts met his maw, open to accept her soft skin beyond his teeth. His tongue swirled around the bruise that was sure to form. His lips migrated from one breast to the other, his cock aching inside her. His hands ran over and gripped her curves. Judy cradled his head to her, smile pressed in his slowly drying curls. Joyful tears slowly slipped down her nose and onto the crown of his head.
Her hips began to move, gliding up and down his cock. The head sliding across her most sensitive zones, each pass along her walls bringing her closer to her peak. She groaned hungrily in his hair, picking up her pace, taking his gasps of pleasure as motivation.
Finally, Eddie managed to speak. His broken voice muffled against her skin. “So…good. Gonna cum.” There was a twinge of shame in his admission. He would have lasted longer, but given the circumstances, his mind was blown from Judy’s lips alone.
Judy understood, chest aching for him to fill her like he used to. Her voice vibrated in her chest as she purred, “It’s okay baby, cum in me. It’s okay.”
He crossed his legs beneath her, his grip on her plush hips tightening painfully as he took over and slammed her on his cock in short pumps. The thrusts growing desperate to stay as deep inside her as possible. His mouth dropped open, spit dripping down his lips as he pulled back to meet Judy’s gaze.
Her eyes were puffy, dried tears sticking on her skin as she bent back, hands bracing herself behind her. All she wanted was more, and she knew with all her patience and diligence, she wasn’t going to get it. Eddie’s gaze was completely lost, staring at the point of their union, and in a few more thrusts she felt that wet heat fill her. His lips parted in a spent groan, before twisting up in a grin. His clawed thumb reaching gently to rub circles over her clit, hips slowly regaining their pace as he fucked his cum into her.
He'd be damned if he let her go without a leg shaking orgasm.
“You still on the pill?” he asked, punctuated by his grunts as he slid in and out of her. A bit too late of a question, but he already knew the answer.
Judy felt her walls flex in more sporadic intervals, managing a simple, “uh-huh.”
“Lost for words, baby girl? Not so in control now.” He smiled, “your turn, lay back for me.”
Without a second thought, Judy leaned back. Eddie gripped her thighs and pulled her up the bed. Her head finally resting on her sheets. One clawed hand on her hip, the other still stroking her clit, Eddie held her still, hips at an angle to keep his cum inside her.
Judy could feel herself spasming, drawing his cock closer inside, holding it and milking the already sensitive organ. The need made him double over, burying his face in her neck, pounding his cock inside her, soaking the sheets beneath them even further. Chest to chest, trapping his hand against her sex. He didn’t think he had anything left, but he was so wrong.
Judy’s entrance clenched around him, a burning ring around his cock as she felt lightning clap through her body. She slammed her head back and let out a gasp, her smile gleaming. Her release streaming down her lips and thighs, covering his as well. Eddie cried out in her neck, cum dripping from his abused cock. Tears pricking her eyes, pushing him off her before he finally removed his thumb from her clit, sliding himself out of her and watching his cum leak from her. A beautiful sight he could never get enough of.
Eddie and Judy gazed at each other, in wonder and relief. Judy managed to whisper his name once before he leaned back down, all of her limbs clamped around him, bringing him back to her chest, cradling his head to her neck, hand splayed out through his hair, still damp.
“Oh Eddie, my Eddie…” She whimpered in his ear, “my Eddie.”
Whew! That was a crazy ride! Our lovers are finally reunited. Thank you for reading, my loves!
Eddie x Judy (ofc) Part 11 of Eldath's Priestess 5754 Words
Warnings- SMUT (18+), angst, hurt/comfort, fluff, non-penitrative sex, tiddie fucking, monster fucking, mentions of past gay escapades, mentions of past threesome (hinted to be Billy), MEDICAL MENTIONS: needles, overdosing, drugs, intracardial injections. Mentions of major character death.
Now on ao3.
Thanks to @anakinkshamer, my beloved beta reader and editor.
Notes: not canon compliant, also mungrove as a pairing isn't fully addressed, but hinted at.
Summary- As Vecna's power grows, Judy is faced with an impossible choice.
Samwise was bigger than the rest of the demo-bats, waddling at Eddie’s heels like a medium-sized dog. Eddie could only take walks in the dark since he returned home. The yellow of his eyes reflected any light that would shine near him, so sticking to the deep woods would avoid that possibility. Although, the predatory gaze of his personal horde of demo-bats also kept people far from the trees.
This was Judy’s first time joining him, clinging to his arm to keep herself from falling. She understood why there was a “no flashlights” rule, but with the moon covered by pitch black canopy of trees it was impossible to see. No doubt Eddie’s supernatural abilities gave him night-vision, but Judy’s occasional thump “ow” proved that it wasn’t shared.
“You want me to carry you?” Eddie finally asked.
“No, it’s fine.” A lie. It took another scuff of her shoe against a surfaced tree root for her to relent. “Yeah…yeah I’d like that…”
He crouched down, Judy’s hand tracing along his shoulders, feeling around blindly before mounting his back. His arms formed stirrups for her legs. “Your loyal steed, my lady.”
“Thank you, my precious paladin.”
“Paladin,” he finally rose to his full height, Judy wrapping her arms around his shoulders. “Haven’t heard that one in a while.”
“Sorry, I thought you’d prefer dungeon master.” She said, pressing a kiss at the crown of his head.
“If I can stay your paladin, that’s all I need. Edward the Stalwart and Princess Nim Hellarad, reunited at last.” He smiled, switching up his gate to provide extra bounce, Samwise chittering in surprise.
Judy rested her chin on his shoulder. “You think they’ll get a happy ending?”
“I’ll make sure of it, buttercup.”
A screeching rang from beyond the trees, accompanied by a torrent of flapping wings. She expected the trees to stir with Eddie’s own creatures as the larger horde passed over them. But they remained, chittering and snapping at each other, none taking wing.
“What’s going on?”
Eddie rolled his head slightly, groaning. “Vecna’s calling.”
“Like the frenzy?”
“Not that bad. It controls the creatures, not me. But my little buddies wait until I give them permission.” He explained. “So, Dustin tried to explain it to me. It’s like those circuits they had us build in school. There are two lightbulbs. The mindflayer is the battery. Vecna is one switch for one bulb. I control the other. If I’m awake, conscious, the connection is possible, if I’m unconscious, then no connection.”
“I’m not even going to try to get you to elaborate.”
“Basically, if I’m asleep, so are the bats. And all I do is take naps so…”
Judy pressed a kiss against the cuff of his ear. “Among other things.”
“My favorite things…” He purred, “speaking of…you wanna go home?”
“Yes please.”
Samwise stayed outside when Eddie continued to carry Judy inside, still on his back. Wayne was at the plant, Margie in bed. Still, they tamped down their giggles as much as they could. Judy reaching back to lock the back door, her hand returned to Eddie’s shoulder, tapping it twice. “Down, please.”
“Nope. This floor is no good, Princess Hellarad. I must find a suitable place for you.” He announced. Swiftly, with new purpose, he moved to the couch, letting her plop down on the cushions. He turned, gazing at her in the moonlight. “No.”
“Eddie come on.” Before she could finish he lifted her bridal style, carrying her up the stairs and into Wayne’s empty room, plopping her on the bed for a moment.
He stood, panting. His face began to glisten with sweat. One more deep breath. “Nope.”
His body hunched over, yanking her over his shoulder. His arm wrapped around her waist, Judy’s arms pressed against the center of his back. She shook her head with a smile, “Goddamnit.”
Eddie opened her bedroom door with one hand, tossing her on her bed. He closed the door, leaning his body against it casually then turning the lock. His eyebrows rising at the click. Judy was halfway done with taking off her pants, shoes already yanked off with the laces still tied. “Eager, are we?” He asked.
“To get my clothes off, yes.” She smiled.
He laughed, slowly quieting as she continued to shimmy her jeans off her legs, panties as well, chucking them to the side. Her thicket of dark hair glistening in the moonlight as it peeked through the branches of the tree outside her window. Eddie’s hand ran down his inner thigh, moving to stroke himself over his zipper. His claws scraped against the denim, eyes soon latching completely to the sight of Judy’s breasts falling from her unlined, wireless sleeping bra.
“You okay, big fella?” She asked.
His top teeth slid across his bottom lip, pulling the bottom stitch taught, releasing a calming breath. “Your tiddies are always so pretty.”
“You have something in mind?” She purred, lifting her remaining clothes over her head, letting them drop to the floor. She laid back on her pillows. Bathing in his gaze as it poured over her glistening skin like honey. She already knew what he wanted, and she’d gladly oblige. Her hands reached down to the meeting of her thighs, her arms pushing her breasts together. Her right fingers stroked along her clit, the left teasing her entrance.
Her breasts were poised perfectly, caged by her biceps, hypnotizing Eddie with each breath she took. He stripped himself bare, climbing from the foot of the bed, over her body. Before he could straddle her waist, cock poised at the bottom of her sternum, Judy raised her left hand from between her legs, running her slick coated fingers down his cock. Just wet enough to slide in with no resistance.
Eddie's cock slid between her breasts, his tip poking from the top, dusky pink against her moonlit skin. Her left hand settled on his hip, her right continued to pleasure herself. After one pass through her soft tits, his tip began to leak. He hissed through his teeth, leaning his head back to reveal his neck to Judy, her eyes latching on his bobbing Adam’s apple.
Her nails gripped his hip just below his scar as he continued to thrust, smiling at the sight of his two clawed hands reaching down pushing her breasts together himself, rolling his dark thumbs over he nipples. Her top teeth dragged over her lip as their gazes met once again.
Her arms relaxed, no longer needing to hold anything in place. She simply focused on her own pleasure, strumming her aching bud. Any sort of orgasm would do at this point. Her other hand migrated up Eddie's torso, running her thumb over his nipple. The friction set him alight, thrusting quicker and shallower. Each time she looked down, she could see his leaking tip, glistening and dripping with need between her breasts.
She gave his nipple a slight roll with her fingers. Eddie's lips parted in a higher pitched moan. But he kept going, closing his mouth with an “mmm” before closing his eyes, Judy continuing the action a few more times. That sound he made was enough, a wave a pleasure spread through Judy's body, leaving her with that gentle buzz beneath her skin.
She pressed her head into the pillow, exposing her long neck. Eddie's thrusts became more erratic. The sight of her, exposed and used, covered in him and nothing else, must have been the last straw. Before he could ask her to stick her tongue out to catch it, his cum spurted from his tip and up her neck. His mouth opened with another cry as more emptied from him. Judy quickly tilted her face down, lips parting and tongue stretched to accept what he had left. He managed a few drops for her before he let go of her breasts, leaving his spent and aching cock bare.
Judy withdrew her tongue back into her mouth, swallowing his spend as he watched, her right hand finally released from under Eddie’s thigh. A combination of his sweat on her forearm and her own juices on her fingers were muted by her aching wrist, wiping her hand and arm on her sheets before bringing it up and rubbing it with her left hand. Eddie reached down with a “here”, taking her wrist in his fingers and massaging it. “Haven’t fingered someone in a while, you’re out of practice.” He smiled.
“I mean…if you’re offering, I can always play with what you have.”
Eddie let out a laugh, “not my thing.”
“Right, Mister Stone Top.” She added, pausing for a second as Eddie fished tissues out of the box on her bedside table. There was a tightness in her chest, nervous about intruding, before letting it go as she asked. “Did you ever try it, before you got with me?”
He gazed at her, gathering his spend from her neck, wiping it away. His expression softened, “yeah…not a fan. It hurt and I didn’t like how it made me feel…like…emotionally.” Eddie threw the tissues away, gathering more as he moved down to the valley between her breasts, now parted to their respective sides. The soft tissues left her skin dry. He continued rambling, “Honestly, didn’t like the head part either. I mean getting head from a dude, great. They go in and like get it done, man. But like…giving head. Depending on the size, it would feel invasive. I would listen to these guys talking about loving big cocks and how they felt in their mouths, and I was like ‘I prefer it not to hit the back of my throat, thanks.’ Just a sensible four is as big as I need.” Eddie tossed the other tissues away, then paused. “You never asked me about that before.”
“You never asked me about my escapades either. Thought it would be…invasive to ask you.” she explained, sitting up and pulling her knees so her chest. She didn’t know why she felt so self-conscious. “Maybe I was scared that if we talked about it, I’d tell you about what I did, and you might get…weird about it.”
“Me? Get weird about that? I think you have forgotten who you’re with, baby. And what we’ve done together.”
Judy’s face felt flush. “Or that I might feel…jealous…of the people you were with.” She continued, “but it’s weird…because I don’t feel jealous. I feel…”
Eddie’s mischievous smile emerged, his nose pushing past her knees and into her face, “turned on.” Judy looked away, lips tight in embarrassment. He let out his signature chuckle, “baby, the image of you going down on another girl has gotten me through many a night.”
“Really?”
“Oh, fuck yeah. But when I got with you, and when we did that thing with whatshisname…I realized I didn’t like sharing you.”
“I didn’t like sharing you either. And you didn’t even fuck him.”
Eddie pressed his forehead against hers, bumping their noses together. “So, whatever we did before, it’s fine. Nothing to be ashamed of. We can use it as spank bank material for each other. I’ll think about you being three fingers deep in a cheerleader, and you can think about me fucking jocks in the ass.”
Judy let out a wheeze before reeling back and cackling, quickly covering her own mouth, making sure not disturb anyone else in the house. Eddie smiled, pressing a kiss on her nose. “Only! If I have your permission. You already have mine.”
She nodded with a regal air, “Of course. You may jack off to my lesbo escapades.”
Eddie hopped off the bed, his softened cock bounced in the air before he got on his knees, bringing his fists down in a pump of victory, releasing a voiceless “YES!”
Judy continued to stifle her giggles, as did Eddie. His eyes followed up her bedside to her legs, the little hairs almost twinkling like rhinestones. She hadn’t shaved in a bit, but her comfort level with Eddie made it so that she didn’t need to fret.
He rose to his feet, climbing over top of Judy again as she lowered her legs. He rested his ear against her sternum, bracketed by her soft breasts. Her skin smelled like him, and a little bit of her too. Her heart’s gentle rhythm playing beneath his stitched-up cheek. “I can’t believe you’re mine, buttercup.”
Judy’s chest ached at his sweetness, soothed by a slight kiss from the corner of Eddie’s mouth. Her long fingers ran through his curls, nails softly scratching at his scalp. Eddie, like the large beast he was, let out a purr.
She smiled, “I always was, baby.”
As Eddie finally drifted off to sleep, the horde of deformed bats in the woods grew silent as well. The night was finally still.
-------------------------------------------
Maybe telling Judy their plan was a bad idea. That’s what Judy thought, at least. She could feel the sweat form on the back of her neck as Dustin continued to explain how Rick was the only one who could supply the “sedatives or whatever”. Her face grew hot again, eyes fixed to the cabin floor.
She had no place to argue. These kids were all gifted. Strategic in their planning. But feeling Rick’s eyes on her made the feeling of helplessness worse. Judy finally spoke, interrupting the meeting of the young minds. “You understand that an overdose that size can kill him? We’re just gonna breeze past that. There is a fine line. And we don’t have the equipment that could keep him alive.”
“Under my watch, he’ll be just fine. I’ll make sure of it.” Rick said.
She stood up from her spot on the couch, throwing off the balance of the room as everyone else remained seated. “You? You’ll take care of it? I wouldn’t trust you to water my aunt’s azaleas.”
“You can’t blame me.”
“I can blame you for everything if I want to. You got Joe hooked on heroin, persuaded him not to go to rehab before it got bad. He’s dead. You had Eddie selling the harder shit while you were locked up to keep your product moving, had him selling ketamine, the ketamine that Cunningham wanted, and it ended up with her dead in Eddie’s home and Eddie falsely accused of her murder. If you hadn’t persuaded him to do that, he would be fine, he would be living with me far the fuck away from here.” She reached her limit, “So no, Richard, you won’t take care of it. Because I can’t stand the idea of losing Eddie aga-” She shut her mouth, clenching her teeth.
Dustin stood up, walking himself between her and Rick, his hands up to her in submission. “Okay, that’s fine. You…could do it. Right. You got that training.”
Judy’s eyes stung, realizing she hadn’t blinked the entire time she was ripping Rick apart. She closed her eyes, a rogue tear leaking from the corner of her eye. “Have you talked to Eddie about this?”
“It was his idea.” Dustin insisted.
Thum. It had been years since she felt that. The hallow drum within her chest and the mallet striking it, shaking off the cobwebs. She returned to her spot on the couch, Steve to her right, the arm rest on her left, the door behind her.
Thum.
All she had to do was get up and leave.
Just go. Get up. Get back up.
Steve’s hand moved, resting on her arm. It was softer than she expected, warm. “I’d trust ‘em.”
Her voice came out several decibels lower, “Rick or Eddie?”
“Both.”
The meeting continued the plan being very similar to the one from months back. Separate, go in through different points, weaken him, and send in El for the kill.
Judy finally spoke again, “are we sure it’s just El he wants?”
“What do you mean?” Asked Mike, a slight scoff in his voice, “that’s all he’s been saying.”
“Well,” she continued, “from what I heard, it’s Will too, and Max. And it was the three teens who died in spring. People who were face to face with the Vecna or the mindflayer.”
“When did Vecna see Chrissy in person?”
Judy felt her skin prickle, realizing watching the pieces emerge into a single image. “In 1976, a flu swept through Hawkins. The sickest kids had febrile seizures and went blind. The local bio lab made a treatment. The doctor in charge of it, Doctor Brenner…brought his son.”
“One…” El whispered.
She nodded, “Some of the children who received the treatment were Chrissy Cunningham, Fred Benson, Patrick McKinney, Barb Holland, Marty Miller, Vicky Blake…and me.” Her last admission was quietest, hanging in the air. “There are others besides me and Vicky that are alive. No one is within twenty miles of Hawkins, except me.”
“So why are you still here?” Robin asked. There was something about her tone, or the ‘still’ that she added that pinched at her skin.
Judy bit back, “Because my boyfriend is here, and now that I know some of you are willing to kill him, again, I’m definitely not leaving.” She knew she was a little sensitive, a nerve had been exposed when Rick arrived. But her bitchiness was surprising to even herself. “Sorry, that was really mean. Maybe it’s the anxiety or something…but all of this,” her hand moved in a circle to her right, “isn’t helping.”
Her stomach started to gurgle, indigestion, again. She reached into her purse, fishing out her Rolaids, unwrapping a disk and popping it in her mouth. As she chewed, her hand cupped her face, rubbing her nose on her own skin in a hypnotic pattern. Their voices turned into a rumble in the back of her mind, rising and falling with intensity.
“Who was Joe?” The voice carried softly over the others.
Judy looked to her right, where Steve once was Max sat. Her ginger braids over her shoulders. She answered, “He was my older brother. Died thanksgiving of eighty-four.”
“I lost my older brother too, well stepbrother.” Max explained.
Judy placed her hand over Max’s, giving a gentle squeeze. “I’m sorry to hear that. Not something you can get over.”
“His name was Billy. You might have met him. He was an asshole.”
Judy’s gray eyes widened for a moment, grateful that Max could not see her expression. She knew Billy very well…too well…the way his lips pressed against her skin as it spilled over her leather bralette, how his curls looked in Eddie’s fist. She blinked hard to clear her mind.
“But he was your asshole.” she added, shaking her head with a slight laugh. “I know it.”
Max smiled at that, soft, haunted. It dropped. “He was killed right in front of me. This flesh creature shoved its tendril through his chest, punched a hole right through. I can still smell it sometimes.”
“I wish there was something I can give you to make it easier.” Judy admitted, “but there isn’t. You’ll always think of him, and it’ll always hurt. Just each time you do, try to dig deep and find the good memories. Anything to drown out the last thing you saw.” Her mind wandered to Joe’s face, lids half-closed, color seeping away. She shook her head, blinking again. “Sorry about the unsolicited advice.”
“It’s okay.” Max said, “did you know him?”
She took in a breath, letting it out. A little bit of truth was good enough, perhaps his music selection, “yeah. Scorpions, Ratt, Poison. His regular bands. He was nicer than most of my customers, but I think it was to score the eventual discount.”
“Judy!”
Her gaze moved with the nod of her head. The cluster required her attention. Rick had ducked out before she could see him. They had relocated to the kitchen, a map sprawled out on the dining table. She approached. The huddle parted, Robin quickly caught Judy by the arm. “Hey, I just wanted to check on you.” She took a beat, gathering her thoughts before opening her mouth and “I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to come off as mean sometimes I just have those tone problem at least my parents say that I do and I can’t really tell when it happens until it hurts somebody.”
Judy managed a smile, taking both Robin’s arms, “hey, it’s okay. I’m in a place where I can’t…” she searched her mouth for the words, finding none. Just managing a, “ya know?”
Robin nodded, “yeah, definitely.”
“But I appreciate that you’d check on me.” She gave Robin’s elbows a soft squeeze before parting, “I gotta go see what curly wants, before he gets mad at me.”
“Keeping him waiting is never good.” Steve added.
Approaching Dustin, Judy found herself approaching a quartet of young men. Shoulders hunched over the map, murmuring amongst themselves. “So, what do you need?”
“You and Rick need to cover Eddie, the best placement is your house.” Will said.
Dustin continued, “Far enough from a gate that if something goes wrong, it stalls Vecna from being able to regain his bat horde to his location.”
“There is a big chance that this will kill him, you understand that? For all we know, Vecna is what’s keeping him alive.” Judy chewed on her bottom lip, “so either the overdose kills him”
Mike concluded. “And Vecna loses control of that horde permanently.”
“Or Eddie survives the drugs, Vecna dies…and Eddie dies.” Judy finished, “God you guys are really dead set on killing him.”
“We don’t know if it’ll kill him. His wounds have healed. You might be able to restart his heart with a defibrillator.” Lucas introjected.
“That’s not how it works. Defibs only reset an abnormal heartrate.” She explained, “It’s not like tv. You’d have to give him epinephrine, either intravenously or intracardially, all the while doing continuous chest compressions. And I’m not trained to put in a line. Hopefully, in that time, Rick would have called EMS. God knows I can’t bring myself to trust that man.”
“You’ll have to.”
The words spat like hot grease, her lip curling in disgust. “I’ll have to talk to him about this.” She meant Eddie. Her Eddie, who somehow managed to assist in concocting this plot that would most certainly end with his death. Judy was beginning to think he wanted to kill himself. Not knowing that Eddie, in fact, had limited time anyway.
His “not yet” had turned into “not ever” as he pushed the inevitable discussion of his death further away. Robbing Judy of solid ground, until she was blindsided by this eventual execution in 36 hours.
By “talk to him about it”, Judy originally meant scream at him about it until she had an aneurism. But when she got home to him, his sad puppy eyes, his guilt-ridden expression. She could only melt into his arms and sob. The two landing on the entryway floor.
“I don’t want you to die.” She managed choke out, another deep sob wracked her body. “Please, Eddie. Just tell me you don’t want to do this.”
Eddie’s chin rested atop her head. “I don’t want to do this, baby.” He ran his cheek along her hair. She had managed to fold herself into the smallest shape possible, curling into his lap. “He’ll kill me, regardless.” Judy let out another wail, muffled by Eddie’s t-shirt. “I’m so sorry, Judy. Wish I had told you.” His lips parted in her hair, at first to press a kiss, but only to let out a cry of his own. His chest shook against her cheek. His speech became clenched and difficult. “I don’t wanna die, babe.” He hiccupped, “But I w-will.” He sucked in a breath. “Jst wanna do something right.” His voice ran dry, managing quiet whimpers of “I’m so sorry, Judy.”
Wayne and Margie were sitting on the back steps, each with a glass of whiskey in their hands. While Judy had been told of the plan from the Scooby Gang, Eddie had told Wayne and Margie. Their faces now haggard and pale, carrying the heavy burden of the incoming death of another nephew, another son. Samwise, like the dutiful companion it was, stayed at their feet, purring in an attempt to comfort them, only seeming to unnerve them instead.
Within the next day and a half, Judy and Eddie didn’t leave the house, hardly leaving the bedroom. If they did, it was together. Attached at the hip, or both hips, arms around each other. As if they were teenagers again, finally together after almost a decade of avoiding their feelings. But the reason was different this time. In counting down the hours, neither one wanted to miss a moment. Judy could never get sick of Eddie. And Eddie, riddled with terror and guilt, just wanted his girl close. To smell her, feel her, to open his eyes and see her.
“My princess” “my angel” “my girl”, anything he could call her other than her name would pour from his lips. As for her name, he practically breathed it. Wrapped around her, within her, anything he could do.
While they spent their last moments together, Margie and Wayne made their plans to evacuate, at their children’s behest. Wayne was the more reluctant of the two. But after many tears and pleas, Margie was in the beetle driving to stay with a friend in Indianapolis. Wayne, on the other hand, was much harder to sway.
“You needed me, and I wasn’t there.” The older man insisted, “I can’t live with myself again if I failed you a second time.”
“You didn’t fail me, pop. But if you die in this…” Eddie took in a deep breath, “I need you to be here for Judy when it’s done. And me…if I magically survive. Please, just this once, listen to me.” He reached out, the first time he had separated himself from Judy in hours and brought Wayne into a hug. “Please, I need you to get out of here.”
Wayne’s arms slowly wrapped around his nephew, holding him as close as he could. His eyes shimmered with tears before finally relenting, “alright.” He gave Eddie one last squeeze, “you stink, son.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, just…clean yourself up before you do your thing. Don’t want you runnin’ around lookin’ like no one cares about you.” Finally, they separated, Wayne giving his nephew one last kiss on his forehead, ruffling his hair. No doubt something he used to do when Eddie was younger. They said their goodbyes before Wayne got in his car and slowly rolled out of the driveway. He lingered in front of the house for a moment, before raising his hand in one last wave, driving east and out of Hawkins.
6 Hours remained.
Eddie and Judy rarely showered together. Unless they were willing to exert significant effort neither of them could get properly clean. This was their last chance to try again. They got in the shower, bare chest to chest, rotating together in fourths to get properly clean.
“This is so stupid.” Judy laughed.
“Listen, babe, I don’t know what you want from me.” Half of Eddie’s mane was under the water, the other half still white with suds. “This was your plan.”
Judy was in the same situation, a direct mirror of Eddie, water down half her curls, the other sudsy and smelling of oranges. They continued their dance, taking a hour for a normal shower. Taking as long as they needed. Drying each other off gently, peppering each other with kisses when they could.
Attempting to make six hours feel like an eternity. And to their effort, it did. They were cuddled on the couch together when there was a knock at the door. Early afternoon. It was time.
Having Rick inside her home again already set Judy’s teeth on edge. There was only so many times she could stand him patting Eddie on the back, insisting on how happy he was that Eddie was alive.
“I’m not used to this superhero shit, man. You know that.” He reiterated, laughing to himself, “but if it means ridding myself of my stash and starting over in a more legitimate product, I’d call it a win.” Rick paused at the silence, “What? It’s a joke! God, can’t tell jokes anymore with you kids. Always so serious.”
“Garage, by the way. I don’t want that acrid smell in my house.” Judy managed to say.
“No problem, boss.” He gave her a casual salute, gathering his supplies once more and leaving out the back door.
Eddie approached Judy, his claws running down her arms to cradle her from behind. His nose pressed against her ear. “Hey, it’ll be okay. I’ll be alright.”
“No, I’m supposed to be the one doing the reassuring.” She turned in his arms, bringing her hands to stroke his face, trailing her shaking fingers over the crags of his maw. “I just…”
He caressed her wrist, pressing his lips against her skin.
“I don’t want you to die. I can’t do that again. I can’t…” Her voice stopped, hiccupping into a panicked gasp. “Oh God.”
“It’s okay, Judy baby. If anything happens,”
“No.”
“Yes, you need to listen to me.” His hands grasped her by the sides of her face, forcing her to meet his yellowed gaze. “If anything happens, it’s not your fault. It was never your fault. I love you more than…” He shook his head, no words could express it. “It was always supposed to end like this.”
Judy’s eyes bubbled over with tears, completely obscuring her view. Her back teeth ached from the clenching, holding back any wail that wished to escape. “Please, Eddie.” She whimpered.
“You’re mine, buttercup. You always will be.” He brought her face to his, pressing his lips to hers. She gave way, accepting his kiss, his tongue, his reassuring smile. His hands finally released her cheeks and gripped any inch of her curves he could reach. Holding her as close as he possibly could, and adding another inch with each breath, her sobs finally quieted, dancing across her tongue to him. The more he kissed her, the more he could hide his sobs. Each gasp for air was simply that, a gasp. Every draw of her lips soothing his terror, and the taste of her tongue brought him bliss.
He finally spoke. “Or” they finally parted, “I’ll be perfectly fine, everything will go well, you’ll revive me, and we’ll move to Pennsyltucky,” another quick kiss on her nose, “and raise angora rabbits.”
Judy finally wiped her tears away, finally able to see Eddie clearly. His face was red and wet, a testament to his own sorrow. “Perfect.” She whispered.
“Misses and Mister Sondheim.”
“Still wanting my name, huh?” Judy asked, her face found its way to his. Her hooked nose to his cheek.
“Well, I’m not keeping this one.”
The walkie-talkie crackled awake, Robin’s voice rising above the static. “Bat-Daddy, what’s the status?”
“You gotta say over.”
“Over.”
“Bat-Daddy?” mouthed Judy.
Eddie wiggled his eyebrows, “you know it, crybaby.”
“Wait…. wait am I crybaby? Eddie do they call me crybaby?”’
He shrugged.
“Crybaby are you there? Over.” Dustin.
Her top lip twitched for a moment, snatching the walkie from the table and answering. “No crybaby here, but there are two bat parents. You may call me bat-mother, thank you.”
There was a pause before Dustin added, “You gotta say over. Over.”
“Over.”
“Okay, cool. What is your status bat…mother?”
Judy gave a definite nod, “Thank you. Asshole is cooking up what we need. He’ll get us when he’s ready. Then I’ll reach you during bedtime…over.”
“Let’s get you in a k-hole, big fella.” Rick said with a smile, poking his head around the storm door.
Eddie took Judy’s hand, pressing her knuckles to his lips. Then he made his way to the garage, Judy trailing behind.
“Shirt off, big guy. Judy, can you find his entry point? Below fourth rib.”
The two were surprised on his forward nature.
“You said you have emt training?” Rick continued.
“No…just first aid, who told you emt?”
Rick waved off the question, fixing a cap over the epinephrine shot. “Can you do an intracardial injection?”
“I know how, but I’ve never done it before.”
“Okay, cool.” He affixed the shot in the hard leather case, followed by the sound of zippers and clinks of metal. “Here.” Rick’s arms wrapped around her waist, the buckle of the fanny pack clicking into place. “So we don’t lose it. Now,” his attention shifted to a shirtless Eddie, finally getting to see his scars, “fuck bro they weren’t kidding. Uh…belly up on the floor.”
Judy watched Eddie follow the direction. She followed suit, her fingers probing his chest until she found the correct position. The sharpie in hand, she marked it with a heavy circle. “Like those tests say, fill the bubble heavy and dark.” Her hand shook as it drew the marker away, capping it.
“It’s gonna be okay, baby.” Eddie whispered.
She smiled, pursing her lips to blow air on to the mark.
“No babe…over a bit.”
“I’m not blowing on your nipple, you nasty boy.”
Eddie raised his brows again, biting his bottom lip. “Suit yourself.”
“I’ll literally do anything you want when this is over, and you live.” She let out another stream of air, moving her aim for one last puff, gracing over his dusky pink nipple and winking at him as it stiffened.
“You two done? As much as I dig the love, very cool, I do need to knock this boy out before he turns into Carrie or something.” Rick offered Eddie a little cup of pills, rattling off the concoction he had created, comprising of downers and a paralytic.
“Hearing a white guy say ‘dig’ will always be weird.” Judy muttered, watching Eddie sit up and take the cup from his hand. She turned away from both of them before Eddie’s free hand touched hers.
“I love you, buttercup.”
She pressed her lips into a line, swallowing back a sob. “Love you too.” One last squeeze of his hand before he let go, knocking back the pills, following it with a glass of watered-down vodka. Gently, Rick and Judy guided him to the back wall.
“My paladin.” She watched as the medication started to take effect, Eddie’s eyes slowly dulling, lids fluttering closed. Judy rose to her feet, taking the walkie from the table. “Bat-mother to cave, bat-daddy is down. Over.”
It's the homestretch now children. Thank you my friends for reading! See ya next weekend!
Ps: don't worry mungrove babes, I got a fic for you in a future.
Tag List: @loserboysandlithium @userchai @secretdryrose
Eddie x Original Female Character Pt 9 of Eldath's Priestess 2870 Words
Warnings: Descriptions of surgery, references to Vietnam, Mentions of small town Antisemitism and Racism.
Now on ao3
Thank you @anakinkshamer for being my beta reader.
Notes: Judy and Margie, as expected with the names Sondheim and Abrams, are Ashkenazi.
I wrote their household as a reflection of my own. As one of the five Jews at my high school long ago, I know a little something about the life of small town Jew.
Summary: Vignettes of Hawkins.
There were seven moveable lamps in the Sondheim-Abrams-Munson household. A tiffany lamp from Judy’s bedside, a glass lotus from Margie, and a blue shaded lamp from Wayne. Without the shades, added to the overhead light above the dining table, provided plenty of light. Enough to perform the much-needed restitching of Eddie’s maw.
It had been two days since the frenzy’s end, the skin around Eddie’s fissures had calmed with continuous care from Judy. There wasn’t a moment where she wasn’t fussing over him. Though having her on Eddie’s lap was incredibly satisfying for the both of them.
Wayne couldn’t do it. His nephew laying on the dining table, barely flinching as the needle neared his skin. And in his desperation, he compromised his nephew’s safety. Judy called Gareth, and Gareth brought his stepmother.
Sheryl Kaufman was not always a homemaker. That was a post war choice, receiving VA benefits for her service in the Army Medical Corps. There are only so many kids you could sew up before you broke. For Sheryl, it was no doubt in the hundreds.
Eddie’s face was nothing she hadn’t done before. In fact, she was relieved he still had skin to sew. They had applied ice to his face in the 15 minutes it took for her to arrive. All of the supplies were ready, sterilized and laid out on a dinner plate. Judy’s slender fingers rested on either side of Eddie’s head. It took Sheryl an hour. All four were set and secure, the stitches barely visible.
But the most daunting task was his chin. It had remained undisturbed since the frenzy. The state of the wound was less than ideal, and everyone knew the pain would be difficult to manage. With each snip of the scissors, the thread clumped and stuck to the blades. Eddie’s head shifted in Judy’s hands, only calming him with a lasting press of her lips against his hairline.
The ordeal took another half an hour, giving Eddie a small break before replacing the stitches. But when all was completed, Eddie was given a hand mirror. His eyes shimmering with tears for a moment before sucking in a breath.
“How hard was it to fix?” He asked.
Sheryl stretched, rolling her shoulders, “not too bad. That chin was the worst of it.”
Judy gave Sheryl’s miracle hands a squeeze, “Thank you, Sheryl. And please don’t-”
“I won’t tell anyone your secret. I don’t think Gareth could ever forgive me if I did.” She looked to the kitchen, “now, I was promised peppermint tea. I hope you can deliver, Abrams.”
“Of course, how could I deny my PTA partner in crime?” Margie answered with a smile.
Judy and Eddie retreated to their bedroom, Sheryl’s voice calling out to them, “don’t you mess with my work up there.” Her warning was met with a set of giggles and the sound of a closing door.
------------------------------------
Tuesday morning, Judy had received a phone call from an Associated Press reporter, only by the name of Gillespie.
“I want to set the story straight with Eddie.” He said. Of course, Judy knew better. It was a salacious story that remained untouched. People hounded the parents of the victims, even Wayne, but no one ever thought to ask Eddie’s peers. His real peers.
To Judy, he was the last Jewish boy in Hawkins.
“And that’s the story you’re giving them?” Eddie asked, zipping up the back of Judy’s sundress. Her head was flipped over, tying a gold and white bandana around her hair.
“I mean, you are.” Judy’s fingers fumbled with the ends of the cloth, trying it in a tight knot before flipping her hair back up.
He blew the wayward strands out of his face, smoothing the back of her dress out and pressing his lips against her shoulder.
She turned opening her arms, “so? Is it frum?”
Eddie gazed upon her pretty white sundress, adorned with sunflowers. The scarf over her hair allowed her bangs to peek through, holding the rest of her hair from her face. Such a beautiful face. “Yes, baby.” He said, “Very modest, very Jewish.”
Judy took a step forward bumping her nose into Eddie’s, grinning as she hummed “I love you.”
He matched the coyness, lips curling into a smile, “I love you too, baby. I can’t wait until you get home from this thing.”
“And what will you do, Mister Munson?”
“I’d make you a sandwich and get you a cold coke. Then I’d take you to the backyard and lay you in a field of flowers.”
“Oh, we have a field of flowers now?”
“Oh absolutely, I will get you flowers. Even if it means using my little buddies to get them for me.” He scooped her into a quick kiss.
“Don’t be so cruel to those kids. They have like…things to do.”
He hummed against her smile, “Oh no, not them. My bat buddies.”
Judy’s expression shifted, a bit of disbelief. She laughed a little. “What?”
“You already know that I got superpowers, princess.” His lips pressed against her skin again, keeping any questions in her mouth. “God, I can’t stop kissin’ you. Go on and git before I make you late.”
Judy parted from him, poking her finger into his chest, “this isn’t over.”
“I’ll tell you when you get home.”
Judy hoped he would keep his promise. A sandwich would be nice too. Judy sat in the square, waiting for the interview to begin. Gillespie was younger than she expected, but there were still speckles of gray peppered his black hair and goatee. He was from the Bronx, but he actively tamped down his accent during the interview. The borough still poked her head out though, in little vowel mutations and bent consonants.
“You mentioned that he wasn’t a Christian.”
“Yeah, his mother…her parents were Jewish.” Technically one parent, and not the one that counted. “She wasn’t very religious, and Al wasn’t either, ya know. And Wayne, he never wanted to impose. So, compared to the other people in this town, Eddie’s lack of religion was basically Satanic. And he went along with it. He thought it was funny. I mean…you do what you have to do. I played in to the witch thing since people called me a hag. This town doesn’t know what to do with Jews. But historically, not a lot of towns do.”
That was her angle. He wasn’t a satanist, that much she knew for certain. But the US had no love for atheists either. With his blessing, Judy took the position she knew very well. She would call upon the memory of that southern cantor Eddie never met. The father of his late mother, Cantor Ben Lewis.
Besides, Eddie was already willing to convert before they got married. He was half-way to Jewishness already: joining her for Yom Kippur services, sitting Shiva for Joe when he died, lighting the menorah, asking one of the 4 questions during the Seder, insisting that he not “work on Shabbos”, and if he did, he’d complain about it.
Sure, he never got a b’nei mitzvah, but neither did Judy. Her family couldn’t afford one, and her mother was too prideful to ask for help.
His Hebrew was terrible, and yet his rendition of the Kiddush was perfection.
So yes, in Judy’s eyes, Eddie was Jewish.
“When I left, I was scared for him. He liked poking the beehive sometimes. I mean, these people are nuts. God forbid you listen to Iron Maiden or play a fantasy boardgame. Add the fact that you wouldn’t get him to step foot in a church, it was easy for them to turn him into some sort of demon.”
“Was he against organized religion entirely?”
“Oh no, he would attend High Holy Day services with me. Honestly, he was like the rest of us. Just show up for the big ones.” Judy pushed at her cuticles, “he was sweet. He was poor. He was…easy to blame, because he’d always take it upon himself. The whole devil may care shtick was just that, a shtick. In the end, if you dumped a bowl of soup in his lap, he’d apologize and get you another one.”
Gillespie simply nodded, “he seems like a good kid.”
“He’s the best. Eddie deserved better.” There was a pause, “why do you care so much? I mean, according to the current narrative, Eddie is still a suspect.” Judy believed that Eddie had no part, but she got the information directly from the horse’s mouth. “Is this like…a tactic to get more information out of me?”
Gillespie chewed on his words, ruminating on his answer. Judy could feel it. He knew something. “I can assure you, Miss. Sondheim, that narrative is about to change very soon. And with your testimony, the public will get the clearest picture possible of Hawkins, Indiana.”
A rumble started from the end of the street, growing in intensity as a jeep passed the public square. Slowly, the menacing expressions of the young men within it came into view.
“You’d think these rich kids have better things to do than patrol.” Judy said, lips pursed in disgust. “Some of the same kids that tried to hurt that little Black girl, Erica Sinclair, the night of the earthquake. Her folks pressed charges, only to get a written apology no doubt constructed by the perps’ parents. Tried to pass her off as a ‘young woman’, she’s like twelve.” She ran her hand along the nape of her neck, “sorry sometimes I just talk.” She looked back up to Gillespie, matching his eyes as he finished jotting down more notes.
More ammunition, she thought, good.
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Judy had forgotten about Eddie’s promise of a field of flowers. So, when Eddie woke her from her sleep to show her a surprise, it was just that.
The screeching danger of Hawkins dusk, she walked through her kitchen to reach the back door, Eddie’s clawed hand on her waist. “Try not to scream, you’re safe with me.” He said quietly.
She opened the door, the storm door hinges squeaking as the two walked into the night. Eddie stood behind her, hands on his hips. The night echoed with wings and the purring of carnivorous bats. Judy watched as Eddie reached his right hand to the moon, his fingers flexing and pulling the air in a swift motion.
The first swoop and light thump of something being dropped at her feet. Judy’s mouth opened, air filling her lungs for a scream. Eddie’s left hand quickly slid over Judy’s lips, pulling her against his body. “Shh…it’s okay. They won’t hurt you.”
Judy’s eyes closed the moment her back met his chest. She had only left that position a minute before. His claws were nowhere near her mouth then. Now she could smell the lemon hand soap and lingering nicotine between his fingers. She wasn’t going to pull away. His body was the only thing keeping her from scrambling back into the house. Another swoop down from the opposing tree.
Fluth. Another soft plant landed on the ground. Followed by a gentle roar of falling objects in the moonlight, landing with a bounce on the grass below. The final bat landed on the flower covered yard, a stem of a wind geranium in its petalled mouth. It made its way to the two of them, gently laying it at her feet with a purr before backing away and taking flight into the night sky.
As Eddie drew his hand away from her mouth, she finally spoke. “You know I can’t see the flowers, right?”
“I know, just wanted to show you my buddies. You’ll see them when you wake up.” In the dark, Eddie could see it perfectly. The cascading rows of flowers. Some loose blossoms, others were whole plants torn from some person’s garden. He should have been more specific. He reached down, picking up the light blue geranium in his claws. “This one was from Sam.”
“Sam?”
“Samwise. He was the one who saved me in the upside-down, brought me food when I was too weak to move.” Eddie handed the flower to her before guiding her back inside.
She had rarely heard about his experience in that place. The only time he spoke about it, the pain in his voice would choke him. But not this time. Maybe he was healing, or maybe Samwise the demo-bat provided the experiences he could speak on without shame.
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Judy hadn’t expected someone to answer her call so soon. Less than half a ring and she heard his voice over the phone.
“Gillespie here, what can I do for you?”
“Hi, this is Judy Sondheim, I know this is a weird thing to ask about. But I don’t know who else to approach.” She took a moment, pausing to collect her thoughts mid-sentence. “You seemed to indicate that you might have…information that is outside the current realm of public knowledge.”
She could hear his smile over the phone.
“Well Miss Sondheim, I’m not sure I know what you mean. There is nothing I know that isn’t already available to the public at this time. Sadly, I don’t even know where to send you if you had those questions.”
“Oh…” Judy’s teeth pulled at the skin from her bottom lip. “Well, I’m sorry that I bothered you.”
“No worries, Miss Sondheim. I hope you have a wonderful day.”
Click. Then the dial tone.
Judy did the same, hanging up the phone before taking off her glasses and setting them on the table beside her. Her hands ran up her face and through her hair, pulling it back slightly and blinking at the sky. She let go, pulling at her fingers to make them pop before sitting down on the couch. “Fuck.”
Not five minutes later, the phone began to ring. Judy put her glasses back on to reach for the phone without missing.
“Hello?”
The sound of busy traffic and hordes of people tinted the voice that came over the receiver. “Miss Sondheim, it’s Gillespie. Sorry about the confusion back there, but you can never be too careful. You seemed to have questions.”
“It’s about the bio lab in Hawkins, and their experimental treatment that they synthesized in the mid-seventies.”
“If I believed in ESP, I’d say you have it.” He laughed, “I was just about to call you. Three of the four deaths before the earthquake line up. It’s deeper than what we initially believed. Cunningham, Benson, and McKinney were connected by more than just circumstance.” He continued, “They were the youngest living three kids treated by the Hawkins National Lab in seventy-six.”
“But in their pictures, Chrissy and Patrick didn’t wear glasses. Everyone who got the treatment experienced vision loss.” She heard another ring of coins fall into the bank. It had been three minutes.
“They were athletes. They wore contact lenses.” He continued, “it also explains why Mayfield was the only survivor. She wasn’t subjected to the treatment, so her immune system was able to counteract the tetanus infection better than the others.”
Judy knew a different truth. That Vecna’s hold was more psychological in nature. But if there was a scientific explanation that would be more readily accepted, she’d take it.
“In fact, that’s why I made that little ESP joke, uh I was gonna reach out. You were on that list.”
“Yeah.” She found her eyes wandering to a spot on the wall, where the paint bubbled slightly.
“Maybe we can reconnect sometime. If you’re willing to tell your story, I know it would do a lot of good. I can understand if you need time.”
She nodded, clearing her throat, “I mean, it wasn’t anything memorable. They took me to another floor, put me on a different drip, and kept me for observation for a week. Once I could see again, they sent me back with the other kids.”
“I thought I’d need to drag that out of you.”
“Oh no, it’s like…the least interesting thing in my life.” She shrugged.
A hammering from the phone booth door and muffled shouting rang from the other end. “Damn, I gotta go before this dude shits himself with rage. Hey, Judy, thank you for your time.” His voice sank slightly with sincerity. “You’ve done a lot by just talking to me. Take care.”
“Of course, buh-bye.” Her last word came out almost like a whisper and she hung up the phone.
“Hey,” Judy body jolted at Eddie’s voice. In her daze she hadn’t heard him sit down on the other side of the couch. “Whoa…you okay, babe?”
“Yeah…I just…did Vecna say anything about me?”
Eddie let out a gentle puff of air from his nose, “he wasn’t the talking type, babe.”
She felt the silence curl and fold in her mouth, eyes still trained on the paint bubble. “Do you wonder what happened to the other kids in the ward?”
“Not really, I mean, most of them got the hell outa dodge. The ones who stayed, I got no clue.”
“I gotta know.” She finally brought her gaze from the wall, lashes wet from strain. “Because I found out what happened to three of them.”
Yiddish and Hebrew definitions
Frum- from the German word for pious.
Yom Kippur- Day of Atonement. Final day of the Days of Awe, beginning at Rosh Hashana (New Year) and ending on Yom Kippur. Both are High Holy Days.
Shiva- Jewish funerary practice, household mourns for seven days.
Seder- Implied to be the Passover Seder, the ritual dinner held on either the first or second day of Passover.
Shabbos- Yiddish for Shabbat.
Kiddush- Prayer over Wine.
B'nei Mitzvah- the non-gendered term for a Bat or Bar Mitzvah
Thank you so much, my dears, for being so patient with me during this dry spell.
Tag list: @loserboysandlithium, @secretdryrose, @usergeta
