The rulers-most of them, anyway-meet to discuss the sightings some of them have had of the... demon. New knowledge comes to light, and feuds grow as tension rises.
Chapter 6! It was my goal to write and post two chapters during my summer holiday, and I have achieved it woo! I go back to work on Wednesday, and so chapters will be so delayed. Like incredibly.
One of my BINGO squares for the year is to get to 10 chapters posted: only four more to go!
--------
Chapters: 6/21
Fandom: Empires SMP, Minecraft (Video Game)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Joey Graceffa/Xornoth (Empires SMP), Scott Major | Smajor1995 & Xornoth (Empires SMP), Joey Graceffa & MythicalSausage & Xornoth (Empires SMP), Exor & Xornoth (Empires SMP), Xornoth & OC
Characters: Jonny | Pixlriffs (Video Blogging RPF), Bryce | fWhip, GeminiTay (Video Blogging RPF), MythicalSausage (Video Blogging RPF), Joey Graceffa, Katherine Elizabeth (Video Blogging RPF), Shelby Grace | Shubble, Xornoth (Empires SMP), Scott Major | Smajor1995, Original Empires SMP Character(s), Jimmy | Solidarity, Lizzie | LDShadowLady (Video Blogging RPF), Joel | SmallishBeans, Pearl | PearlescentMoon, Aeor (Empires SMP), Exor (Empires SMP)
Additional Tags: Empires SMP Season 1, Lovers to Enemies to Lovers, Reunited?, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Characters not real people, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cod Hybrid Jimmy | Solidarity, Elves Have Wings, Elf Scott Major | Smajor1995, Blood and Injury, Hurt/Comfort, Magic, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Blood and Violence, Winged Scott Major | Smajor1995, Champion of Aeor Scott Major | Smajor1995, Champion of Exor Xornoth (Empires SMP), Champion Pixlriffs
Summary:
The secrets of the Empires run deep within our rulers' minds. Alliances, rivalries - these rulers know who they trust and who they despise, but what happens when new secrets come out of the shadows?
What do they do when the ones they despise must now become their allies? When their allies become enemies?
What will our rulers do when their world is threatened with infernal destruction, in the form of someone they used to know?
Or: Empires Season 1, but some new characters come out to play.
It’s me again! I have a month left of my summer holiday, before I head back to work with a full teaching load! I’m hoping to get out one more chapter these holidays; let’s see how I do :)
---
Chapters: 5/21
Fandom: Empires SMP, Minecraft (Video Game)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Joey Graceffa/Xornoth (Empires SMP), Scott Major | Smajor1995 & Xornoth (Empires SMP), Joey Graceffa & MythicalSausage & Xornoth (Empires SMP), Exor & Xornoth (Empires SMP), Xornoth & OC
Characters: Jonny | Pixlriffs (Video Blogging RPF), Bryce | fWhip, GeminiTay (Video Blogging RPF), MythicalSausage (Video Blogging RPF), Joey Graceffa, Katherine Elizabeth (Video Blogging RPF), Shelby Grace | Shubble, Xornoth (Empires SMP), Scott Major | Smajor1995, Original Empires SMP Character(s), Jimmy | Solidarity, Lizzie | LDShadowLady (Video Blogging RPF), Joel | SmallishBeans, Pearl | PearlescentMoon, Aeor (Empires SMP), Exor (Empires SMP)
Additional Tags: Empires SMP Season 1, Lovers to Enemies to Lovers, Reunited?, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Characters not real people, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cod Hybrid Jimmy | Solidarity, Elves Have Wings, Elf Scott Major | Smajor1995, Blood and Injury, Hurt/Comfort, Magic, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Blood and Violence, Winged Scott Major | Smajor1995, Champion of Aeor Scott Major | Smajor1995, Champion of Exor Xornoth (Empires SMP), Champion Pixlriffs
Summary:
The secrets of the Empires run deep within our rulers' minds. Alliances, rivalries - these rulers know who they trust and who they despise, but what happens when new secrets come out of the shadows?
What do they do when the ones they despise must now become their allies? When their allies become enemies?
What will our rulers do when their world is threatened with infernal destruction, in the form of someone they used to know?
Or: Empires Season 1, but some new characters come out to play.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
So, this is my first time posting since my Wattpad era (when I was quite literally 14). This is a little niche AU of Empires Season 1: new characters, OOC writing, and some new lore!
---
Chapters: 3/21
Fandom: Empires SMP, Minecraft (Video Game)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Joey Graceffa/Xornoth (Empires SMP), Scott Major | Smajor1995 & Xornoth (Empires SMP), Joey Graceffa & MythicalSausage & Xornoth (Empires SMP), Exor & Xornoth (Empires SMP), Xornoth & OC
Characters: Jonny | Pixlriffs (Video Blogging RPF), Bryce | fWhip, GeminiTay (Video Blogging RPF), MythicalSausage (Video Blogging RPF), Joey Graceffa, Katherine Elizabeth (Video Blogging RPF), Shelby Grace | Shubble, Xornoth (Empires SMP), Scott Major | Smajor1995, Original Empires SMP Character(s), Jimmy | Solidarity, Lizzie | LDShadowLady (Video Blogging RPF), Joel | SmallishBeans, Pearl | PearlescentMoon, Aeor (Empires SMP), Exor (Empires SMP)
Additional Tags: Empires SMP Season 1, Lovers to enemies to lovers, Reunited?, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Characters not real people, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cod Hybrid Jimmy | Solidarity, Elves Have Wings, Elf Scott Major | Smajor1995, Blood and Injury, Hurt/Comfort, Magic, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Blood and Violence, Winged Scott Major | Smajor1995, Champion of Aeor Scott Major | Smajor1995, Champion of Exor Xornoth (Empires SMP), Champion Pixlriffs
Summary:
The secrets of the Empires run deep within our rulers' minds. Alliances, rivalries - these rulers know who they trust and who they despise, but what happens when new secrets come out of the shadows?
What do they do when the ones they despise must now become their allies? When their allies become enemies?
What will our rulers do when their world is threatened with infernal destruction, in the form of someone they used to know?
Or: Empires Season 1, but some new characters come out to play.
Welcome to the Double Hearted Masterpost, every single post that is important to the story will be found here.
Remember, if I don’t answer one question immediately, there’s a high chance it will be explained in the future, or it was already explain in comics or asks.
Feel free to ask anything !
Fanarts, Cosplays, Edits and Fanfics are VERY welcome, tag me on them or send me the link.
➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.
➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”
➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”
➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”
➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”
➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.
“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.
“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”
➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”
➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”
However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!
➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.
If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)
➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“
“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.
➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.
➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”
➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.
“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”
➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.
“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”
Series Sypnosis: You're a former profiler who returns to the BAU after years in academia, reigniting a charged and complicated dynamic with Aaron Hotchner. Bold, brazen, and unafraid to push his buttons, you challenge Hotch's usual control and professionalism, making him confront emotions he’s long buried. What begins as playful banter escalates into something deeper, as the chemistry between you simmers just beneath the surface. As you both tackle high-stakes cases, the tension intensifies, blurring the lines between personal and professional, forcing both of you to confront the undeniable connection you’ve been avoiding for years.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
Part 0. Prequel Coming Soon!
Part I. It’s strange what desire will make foolish people do**^
Part II. And I never dreamed that I’d lose somebody like you**^
Part III. This world is only gonna break your heart ^
Part IV. The world was on fire, and no one could save me but you ^
Part V. I never dreamed that I'd love somebody like you *^
Part VI. Coming Soon!
BONUS:
Rule Follower*^ (Sexual Harassment Seminar One Shot)
A series of stories or documents that can be read in conjunction with each other or as stand alone articles.
[ pair. ] spencer reid x fem!cold!reader
[ fics. ] thirty two
[ key. ] 🌨️/angst ❄️/fluff 🧊/hurt*comfort
main masterlist.
0.9k | greetings & salutations. ( ❄️ : you meet spencer reid for the first time.)
2.1k | (under)qualified. (❄️🧊 : Sometimes, having older people work alongside the team is beneficial, other times they’re ageist and discredit anyone younger than them. The only real solution for that is to stand up for yourself.)
1.4k | roommates. 1.4k | part two. (❄️ : when you and spencer share a room together on a case, you find yourself a little out of character at the revelation you'll have to share a bed with him)
1.1k | checkmate. (❄️ : morgan and spencer just cannot agree on whether or not chess is actually a fun game to play, dragging you and emily into their debate in hopes of gaining a majority vote.)
1.0k | majority vote. (❄️ : morgan is convinced that you're incapable of expressing human emotion, so you bring spencer in as backup to consolidate you.)
2.3k | breaking the ice. | 2.4k | part two. (🌨️🧊 : Sometimes people just cry, there doesn't really have to be a reason. But when you have a reputation for being cold and uncaring, being emotionally vulnerable with other people isn't very easy. Spencer doesn't care though, he'll get through to you either way.)
1.6k | takedown. (❄️ : Who knew watching somebody take down an unsub would cause Spencer to feel so many emotions at once?) | 2.4k | part two. (❄️ : Spencer might be a know-it-all, but at least he actually knows the things that he talks about.)
3.1k | backup. (❄️🧊 : some men are assholes who only care about their own gratification, some men are spencer reid.)
2.9k | cup of coffee. (❄️ : a local officer on a case you're working on really wants to impress you, spencer reid does it without even trying.)
1.6k | trypanophobia. (🧊: you get an injury that needs medical stitching to stop it from scarring properly, but you’re not a fan of needles.)
2.8k | close call. (🧊🌨️ : spencer runs head first into a situation that almost gets him killed, and you show your concern in a very roundabout way.)
1.5k | little things. (❄️ : You'd like to say that you were entirely successful in emotionally removing yourself from your coworkers, but Spencer had managed to work himself into a crack in your emotional wall and the rest of the team is starting to notice.)
3.0k | hometown. (🧊❄️ : spencer runs into an unfortunately familiar face during a case in las vegas, and you help him escape it whilst inadvertently proving you pay more attention to him than he thought you did.)
2.3k | sick day. (🧊❄️ : Stubbornness is both your greatest strength and your greatest weakness, but there's always going to be one person with enough leeway to force you into what's best.)
1.0k | visitation. (❄️ : the team come to visit you post surgery, you're feeling a little more accepting than usual.)
1.5k | artificial sweetener. ( ❄️ : spencer's affinity for sweet drinks often bites him in the back when it comes to coffee shops, but with you as his conpany, it doesn't last very long.)
1.2k | talking fists. (❄️? : alcohol and a short temper don’t mix, who would’ve thought?)
1.5k | secret santa. (❄️ : spencer’s a little stumped on what to get you for secret santa.)
1.0k | just another day. (❄️? : you and the team get caught in texas over christmas.)
2.3k | oh no. (❄️ : Spencer makes a (rather terrifying) revelation in relation to his ice-hearted coworker, who might not aetually be all that ice-hearted.)
1.2k | face to face. (🌨️ : you threaten to crack under the stress of spencer’s abduction.)
2.2k | à bientot. (❄️ : spencer takes an opportunity to get closer to you based on nothing more than a passing comment.)
1.4k | midnight visitor. | 1.3k | part two. (🧊 : after a particularly eventful case, spencer has a night terror, and the only person he wants to see, is you.)
1.1k | adrenaline. (🧊🌨️ : you and spencer get caught in an explosion, and you’ll be damned if you don’t both get out of it.) | 2.0k | part two. ( ❄️🧊 : you wake up in the hospital after the explosion, and spencer hasn’t left your side.)
1.4k | soft-serve. ( ❄️ : spencer reid hates germs. so why should he have to deal with them.)
5.1k | spin the wheel. ( ?? : you and spencer have to go undercover as a couple for a case. chaos ensues.)
1.2k | stagnant. ( ❄️? : why would someone ask spencer a question if they didn’t want to hear the answer?)
Finding your person is never easy, especially when they live in the apartment next door and have a life as complicated as Spencer Reid's...especially when he disappears for three whole months and comes back a different person.
Warnings & Tags: painting!reader who has a cat. located in season 12. mentions of drugs, jail and injuries. suggestive themes. friends to lovers. hurt/comfort. two idiots obviously in love. lack of communication.
written for steddiebigbang2024 and belatedly posting here!
This part includes the Russian torture scene, so adding a warning for gore/violence just to be safe!
-----
Eddie comes by Scoops, once Steve gets the job there.
The first time, he laughs at the sailor hat for a minute straight until Steve rolls his eyes and calls back, “I'm taking my lunch!”
“Now?” Robin bitches. “Did you actually get a girl to fall for those ridiculous li-” She cuts off as she comes out of the back room and sees Eddie. “Oh. Huh.”
Eddie flashes a sharp toothed smile at her, and Steve rolls his eyes again and elbows him.
“I'll be back before the actual lunch rush hits this way,” he tells Robin, untying his apron and depositing it to the side of the counter.
To Eddie, he says, “Here, since this brought you so much joy,” and drops the sailor hat onto the top of Eddie's head.
Eddie gives a squawk and squirms around like he's trying to bat him off, though Steve notices he doesn't actually push him away as Steve adjusts the hat to his liking.
“There,” Steve says, shooting Eddie a teasing little grin as he steps back. “You keep that on the whole time, and I'll buy you lunch.”
“A small price to pay for a free meal,” Eddie says solemnly, but his eyes are crinkled a little like they do when he smiles, and he doesn't take the hat off the entire time they eat together.
—
He and Eddie sit out back behind Scoops, passing a cigarette back and forth. It's the end of Steve's shift, and technically he doesn't have to stay anymore, but he's not in a hurry to get home.
Dustin's away at camp, after all.
“Why the hell are you working here?” Eddie asks, sounding like he's been mulling it over for a while.
Steve snorts. “Needed to work somewhere.”
“Okay, fine, but haven't you done the lifeguard thing for like three years?”
Steve - didn't actually expect Eddie to know that, and he shoots him a little smile before he rolls his eyes. “Not a real job, according to my dad. It's just hanging out at the pool all day.”
Eddie scoffs. “Would your dad even know a real job if it bit him?”
“My dad's never really had to work for anything,” Steve mutters. “I didn't get into any of the colleges they wanted me to, so I needed to be taught a lesson. Pretty sure he was hoping it'd humiliate me.”
Eddie tips back, looking him over. “You don't look very humiliated.”
Steve shrugs. “Because I'm not. Yeah, sure, the outfit and the hat are stupid, but work is work. Ice cream makes people happy, I make people happy, it could be worse. Besides, he has no idea what I'm even making here. Every paycheck is a little more I can stash away where he can't touch it.”
Eddie's watching him very closely now, in a way that Steve's never seen before.
“How long have you been doing that?” he asks quietly.
“What, saving money that my dad doesn't know about?” Steve asks.
“Yeah.”
Eddie's face is serious - far more serious than Steve's ever seen him, than he thinks the situation warrants. Steve frowns.
“Since I got my first job, I guess? Anything I ask for from him comes with some kind of string attached, and I got tired of paying for it.”
Eddie's quiet again. “You've gotten in a lot of fights the last couple of years,” he says, slow and careful like he thinks Steve might bolt. “Lot of bruises.”
He clocks on to what Eddie's trying to get at, then, and a rush of relief washes over him as he hurries to set him straight. “Oh, no, my dad's not abusive or anything, just an asshole. He's never hit me.”
Eddie considers that. “Your dad can be an abusive piece of shit without ever hitting you.”
Steve licks his lips, takes his turn watching Eddie a little more closely. “Sounds like you're familiar with it.”
Eddie laughs, sharp and humorless. “Come on, man, you know who my dad is.”
“I know what people say about him,” Steve agrees. “But I've learned not to listen to rumors.”
Eddie flicks the cigarette butt off into the distance.
Steve gets out another one, puts it between his lips to light it. He takes a long drag, then - pulls his heart out of his chest, setting it between them before he passes the cigarette over.
Eddie's eyes drop down to his heart as he takes the cigarette, but this time he doesn't say anything.
Steve still doesn't ask to see his, even though he's tempted.
“You can listen to these ones,” Eddie says after a while. “They're mostly true.”
“You deserve better,” Steve tells him.
He looks over when Eddie doesn't say anything, finding him watching his heart. It's beating strong and steady.
“So do you,” Eddie says without looking up.
They sit in silence for a while longer, until the cigarette is gone.
Then Steve tucks his heart back into his chest and stands up. “Come on, I'll get us lunch.”
Eddie scowls at him. “You bought last time.”
“Yeah, but a conversation like that deserves a burrito bigger than your head, and I've got employee discount,” Steve counters, holding out his hand.
Eddie concedes, accepting his hand up.
—
Steve keeps making up excuses to buy Eddie lunch after that, every time he comes by at the end of an early shift or close to his lunch break on a later shift.
One day he gets them both pizza from Sbarro, and they sit at one of the sticky plastic tables in the food court. It's so small their knees knock together as they devour their slices, but -
But it also means that Steve can tuck his ankle up against Eddie's, hook his foot half around it, and have an excuse if he needs one.
He doesn't need one.
Eddie doesn't move his foot away, but he does shoot wide eyed little looks over at Steve like he's not sure whether this is a joke or not, and -
“Hi,” Steve says, soft and ridiculous and holy shit, he has to have something better than hi.
But apparently hi works, because Eddie ducks his head, looks back up at him with something soft and wary and surprised all at once.
“Hi,” Eddie says back.
And that's -
It's something.
—
Steve gets closer to Robin - their bickering has started to become playful, and even though her teasing's never been mean, now it sounds almost fond. She still gets annoyed when customers watch them work in complete sync and think they're a couple, but now she just rolls her eyes and complains to him later instead of throwing things off by trying to protest it.
It's nice. He thinks he might be winning her over, and it makes the days pass a lot quicker.
—
He doesn't see Eddie for a week after their pizza lunch.
He tries not to think much about it, just tells himself that if he hasn't seen him by the time Dustin comes back from camp, he'll call him.
—
This isn't like any beating he's taken before.
Steve'd thought he was prepared. He was prepared, at least in the beginning. Billy did just as much damage, even if it was in a shorter span of time, and the ache in his ribs and stomach and face is familiar.
He can handle it.
Besides, it doesn't matter how much they hurt him - protecting Robin and Dustin and Erica is more important than anything else.
"Let's take a look at his heart," one of the soldiers says. "See how honest he's really being."
Steve's pretty sure he makes a choked off little guh.
He doesn't want to let them anywhere near his heart.
But on the other hand - he isn't lying as much as they think he is, and maybe that will prove it? They'll have to undo his hands to get him to take it out, and he briefly considers trying to get the drop on them, but he has to concede that probably won't go very well for him.
It's not like they're really asking for his opinion, anyway.
They aren't making any move to untie his hands, either, and Steve's brow scrunches in confusion.
He sees one of them holding what looks like a mix of a gun and a taser. It - honestly, it looks pretty stupid, like a prop in a bad movie, and he wrinkles his nose at it.
They press it up against his ribcage, pull the trigger - and fuck, he jolts back with the force of it.
His chest splits open.
The shock of it makes him numb for a precious few moments, staring down at the gaping hole in his own chest. The pain doesn't hit him until they take his heart out. It feels like it's being carved out of him, ripped from his chest as though he were being mauled by a wild animal, and he has the somewhat hysterical thought that he shouldn't be alive for this.
His heart was torn out of his chest, and somehow it's still beating, erratic and racing.
"Hmm," one of the soldiers says, tilting his heart this way and that. "Feels real."
The soldier squeezes it, and this time Steve screams at the pressure tightening around his heart, making him convulse in his bonds.
The second soldier laughs.
"They're making such good fakes these days," the second soldier says.
The first soldier relaxes his grip, and Steve sucks in ragged gulps of air, too disoriented to really understand what they're saying.
"Much more sophisticated than patches and paint," the first soldier agrees. "What good would a spy be if he showed his real heart?"
"No," Steve protests. "It's real, come on, you can feel it."
There’s no sign of deception from his heart, but it's beating too wildly from the pain to really make a difference.
"We'll see about that," the second soldier says, handing a switchblade to the first.
The first soldier presses the flat of the blade against his heart. "Let's see what's underneath if we shave a little off?"
—
Steve doesn't really remember anything after that. He must have passed out, because the next thing he hears is Robin's voice, and he realizes he's in a different room, tied back to back with her.
His chest aches.
Everything aches, really, but his chest is the worst of it.
Steve looks down, sees himself solid and in one piece again. He might have thought the whole thing was just a pain induced hallucination if it weren't for the unstable beat of his heart. It's pulsing unsteadily, and he feels as though if he even breathes too hard, it might burst into pieces with the next beat.
But he's not alone now.
He's with Robin, and she makes everything better, and even though his heart beats too fast when he thinks of how much he likes her - it's the good kind of too fast, not the kind that makes him think his heart is going to explode.
He is pretty sure that his heart is going to explode, though, that they're probably going to die here. He knows Robin is thinking the same thing - he just knows, like going through Russian secret agent torture together has made them automatically on the same wave length.
They were heading towards being friends before this, he knows, wonders if maybe they could have ever been for real.
It's a shame he doesn't think he'll ever get to find out.
—
Dustin and Erica find them before Steve loses any fingers.
Which is good. He might not be on the basketball team anymore, but he still plays with Lucas sometimes, and he likes all of his fingers attached to his hand and not on the floor of a secret Russian base.
He tells Dustin that as they're escaping from said Russian secret base. Dustin looks a little pale, hugs him tight around the middle, which makes Steve laugh - it should hurt, he thinks, but he doesn't feel a thing.
The only thing he feels is kind of floaty, and the itchy, overheated sensation he always gets when he's had his heart locked inside his chest for too long.
When no one's looking, Steve takes his heart out of his chest.
His stomach turns.
Whatever he's feeling about it seems distant, too far removed for him to be able to react to it, but the physical sensation of his stomach heaving is present and accounted for.
It only barely looks like a heart. The shape of it is hardly visible, more like a double handful of the precut chuck roast he gets to use as stew meat, sluggishly oozing every time it beats.
The thought of putting it back in his chest makes his stomach heave again, but even like this, he knows he can't keep it out in the open.
He rips off the red scarf from his Scoops uniform, wraps it around his heart to hold it together, and ties it off.
There.
Now no one will notice.
-----
This is already written, and my plan is to post one part a day until it's all up here!
Taglist (always happy to add more to this if anyone wants): @fairytalesreality @lostonceandneverfound @wheneverfeasible @awkwardgravity1 @theintrovertedintrovert @thewickedkat @ravenfrog @scarlet-malfoy @missmagillicuddy @xxfiction-is-my-realityxx @ollyxar @cringe-culture-is-dead-99 @thedragonsaunt @makewavesandwar @ajeff855 @mae-liz @the-fantastical-asexual @jettestar @warlordess @samsoble @persnicketysquares @cryptid-system @my-love-of-books @mydysfunctionallife @dreamercec @holyangelstudentuniverse
Part 16 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Ao3
1503 words
It’s night and the moon is high in the sky. The stars twinkle like they do every other night, but tonight they seem more beautiful than ever before. Eddie is laying on his back on top of his van, spinning a ring around his finger as he admires the dark blue and all it holds. He feels strangely relaxed, a calmness settled over his bones like a blanket. He’s not used to it, but he accepts it while it’s here.
He inhales the cold night air and believes for the first time in his life that everything will be okay.
He finally brought his grades back up to passing.
Wayne mentioned that a few intro jobs are opening up at the plant soon.
He’s going to graduate, he’s going to get a job side by side with the only family he has ever truly known, he’s going to save up, and he’s going to get the hell out of here.
He has a life to live.
And he can’t wait to live it.
Only now he can’t.
When Chrissy Cunninghan came up to him in the woods where he sells, he was surprised. He was a little nervous that it was some joke at first, but she was nice, and she laughed at his lame jokes. She’s not her boyfriend. It was refreshing to see.
So, he invites her back to his trailer for the harder stuff she had asked for.
And when he goes to get it she dies, dies a horrific death so monstrous that Eddie can hardly believe it. Only it happened and there is nothing he can do about it.
She dies.
And Eddie runs.
Like a coward he runs.
He can’t even hear the sound of his own tires shrieking with the speed he drives away in over the sound of the panic in his ears. A heartbeat so loud it sounds like a hurricane.
He can't see the road. He can only see the blood.
Death burned into the eyelids of a coward.
Without thinking he ends up at Rick’s, or at least what once was Rick's. Eddie isn’t sure anymore, he just knows that Chrissy is dead, has probably been found (oh god please don’t let it be by his uncle), and Eddie is most likely the number one suspect. He can’t bring himself to go inside so he hides in the boathouse instead.
Everyone was always so ready to jump and blame The Freak. Corrupting minds, worshipping the devil, all that suburban mom crap. Only now their queen is dead in his kitchen, and he is nowhere to be found. He has provided their bored eager hands a perfect blame to cast like a stone. Staying hidden is not only necessary for legal reasons now, but also for his life.
Realization sinks in. He could die.
Jason had always been itching for a reason to kill him, he’s sure of it. Danger gleaming in those young religious corrupted eyes. There’s a reason Chrissy came to him, there’s a reason her smile had always seemed so fake.
Blame. Understanding. Regret.
Eddie wishes he knew her. He wishes he could picture her outside of a silent screaming face and snapping bones. His skin itches with the memory, his eyes burn with tears.
He has never in his life been more afraid.
He has never in his life felt more ashamed.
He- he ran. He fucking- ran.
It’s like his own bones are breaking as he sobs into the night air, a beer he had found in one hand and his face held in the other- its effects taking root. He knows that it is a mistake to drink, but the siren call of that darkness between memory has never sounded more sweet.
The crickets are loud in his ears, strange for this time of year. The frogs croak and the wind moves through the chimes on the porch of the house, so faint he has to focus to pick up on it.
But then there’s another sound.
Tires over sticks, leaves, and dirt, the sound of a car parking and doors slamming shut.
All at once Eddie is thrown into panic- the alcohol not helping in any way, he scrambles, dropping the bottle and launching after it a second too late. It breaks on the ground and in his hurry, he picks it up without a thought.
A weapon. His mind supplies him. Just in case.
A lifeline.
He hears people calling his name, can’t make out the voices, only the fear that they bring.
He sees the boat in the center of the room. He sees the flashlight’s beams shining through the holes of the wall. He doesn’t think. He only acts.
The boat would definitely be uncomfortable under any other circumstance- the wood digging into his back as he cowers in the corner under the tarp. He’s shaking, the broken bottle nearly cracking further from the grip he keeps on it, knuckles white.
The door creaks open and Eddie slaps a hand over his mouth to hide his frantic breaths. He waits, terrified, he sits and prays.
Then a horrible, devastating thought creeps into his head. He chokes on it, agonizing over the memories and the miss that it brings.
He wishes Ozzy was here to protect him.
Someone is speaking, multiple someones, but he can’t understand them over the ringing in his ears. He wonders if this is how he's finally going out. Dead in a boat with everyone who knows him hating him.
He thinks he hears his name.
He certainly hears the anger in the tone.
But then there’s something hard and loud being banged into the other side of the boat, Eddie nearly screams- biting his hand so hard he’s sure he’s now bleeding. Then it hits again. A gun Eddie assumes.
As it gets closer his mind begins to plan, only fragments of a death-wish so stupid even he knows it's wrong. A bottle versus a gun.
He’s going to die.
A foot in front of him now.
But at least he’ll die fighting.
Without a breath to prepare Eddie flings back the tarp with a blood curdling yell, tackling the nearest person and shoving them back until their body collides with the wall. He holds the broken bottle to their throat, eyes blurred by fear and ears drowning in the screams around him.
“-ie! Eddie! Stop!”
Dustin?
He snaps his head to where the familiar voice had come from, unable to blink as he watches Dustin hold his arms out to... protect the two behind him. “It’s Dustin!” Eddie wants to cry, he wants to scream.
Dustin looks scared of him. The sheep afraid of the shepherd.
“This is Steve!” A heart sinking into his stomach. Eddie slowly looks back. “He’s not going to hurt you, right, Steve?”
Eddie can’t breathe. He’s frozen, stuck between times as he watches Steve shake from where he is being held to the wall, agreeing quickly as those beautiful brown eyes are wide with fear. He wants to vomit.
Why is Steve here?
It’s not safe.
Eddie’s not safe.
He-
Steve drops what he was holding- an oar Eddie realizes- eyes locked onto Eddie’s like a plea, a trickle of blood flowing down the side of the glass.
And with that Eddie suddenly remembers- he throws himself back, dropping the bottle from Steve’s neck as fast as he can as their voices swarm his ears like mud.
It’s all too much. It’s all too loud!
Eddie falls against the wall, slowly drops down it. Out of the corner of his eye he can see Steve holding his neck as he does the same, the girl he’s with comforting him.
He- he can’t-
Dustin appears in front of him, he doesn’t mean to flinch but he does.
It’s humiliating, he wants to cry.
He wants to scream.
He wants to run.
Hands shaking he tries to listen to what Dustin asks him. Finds the sincerity in the boy’s voice absurd. He’d never believe him, they would never believe him.
What he saw…
But when he shakily voices his belief, unable to look at Steve, they tell him otherwise.
“Try us.” The girl- Max- challenges. He recognizes her from the trailer park, he wonders if she saw.
He wonders if she would even understand if she did.
The boathouse’s air is heavy.
Eddie doesn’t respond at first, throat tight with fear. But then when he finally looks back at Steve- Steve who is watching him with such intent that even Eddie second guesses if he attacked him at all- his hesitation changes.
Confusion mixes with guilt.
Steve sees this, sees like he always does. Eddie watches as the man takes a breath, gives an encouraging nod, and offers the smallest of smiles. Soft without the hatred Eddie had expected to find.
It tastes like forgiveness. It feels like trust. So, Eddie returns the favor, plants his feet in that trust, and he tells them everything.
WOW GUYS! SORRY FOR THE SUPER LATE UPDATE! My life went to shit there for a minute so I couldn't work on this hardly at all. I should have time now that the play I was costume designing for is almost here and also midterms are done. Lost a few friends, gained some new ones. I'm sure you've all heard the life bullshit before, but I am hoping to get back to a schedule with this fic. Thank you all for your patience. Much love!
[You Can Bop if You Want To is playing behind this entire clip]
Gem: "If Bdubs walks up to us right now he's gonna have so many questions."
[general laughter from Skizz, Tango, Cub, Pearl, Scar, and Impulse.]
Skizz: "I want us to just set this up in front of somebody's house to just do it until they come out!"
[Tango and Pearl laugh and "hooooo..." in unison]
Skizz: [singing along] "...no friends of miiiiine..."
Pearl: "That is so good..."
Skizz: "This is amazing--"
Pearl: "It's almost on beat too!"
Impulse: "It's so close--"
Pearl: [distinctly off-beat] "Bop, bop, bop!"
[Pearl and Skizz back and forth "bop"-ing, Skizz on-beat and Pearl off]
Skizz: [laughing] "Pearl!"
Pearl: "What!?"
Skizz: [imitating Pearl] "Pearl! Bap bap bap!"
Gem: "The lag is making--"
Pearl: "Am I delayed?"
Skizz: "A bap bap bap--"
Gem: "--it's like, totally different--"
Pearl: "Ohhhh, maan...!"
Skizz: "Dude, this is amazing--!"
Pearl: "This is great."
[Tango laughing]
Skizz: "We are so in sync, dude!"
Tango: "This is so cool -- we are so professional!"
Part 8 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7
1158 words
Will Byers is missing.
Eddie knows because he is staring at his missing persons poster taped on the wall right outside the theater room door. In his arms he holds the new mini figure set he finished that very morning; he had worked all night in order to surprise the others (having only been using old miniatures for about a year.) He can feel his hands become clammy with sweat and tightens them to avoid dropping the miniatures.
And Eddie doesn’t know this kid, but he does know his brother.
Wayne knows his mother.
Eddie swallows dryly and pushes open the door to start setting up.
He is at only half performance as he tells the story he had curated, the others at Hellfire confused as to why he’s acting so strangely. His heart feels like it's in his ears.
He knows what losing someone feels like.
He knows the desperation that missing brings to people.
Right now, it's all he can feel.
After Hellfire he doesn't even think as he snatches the missing poster off the wall and shoves it into his bag.
He goes home.
He throws his bag onto his bed and digs through it till he finds the paper. Staring down at the Have You Seen Me? sign he feels sick. Twelve years old and so so small. He sits down and works again and again to put the boy’s description to memory- to burn the shape of his face into the dark of his eyelids.
He writes Joyce Byers’s number on his hand.
Eddie doesn’t get any work done that night.
He shows it to Wayne.
Wayne takes hold of the paper solemnly, seemingly not surprised which means he had already known, but there is still a haunt behind his eyes. “Hope they find the boy, he’s a good kid.” Wayne says softly, his voice a bit more scratchy than usual due to his growing cigarette habit.
Then Barbara from band goes missing too.
Eddie doesn’t have to push very hard in order to get Wayne to help him look both with and without the search parties the police set up.
Will is found without them.
He is found dead.
And then he… isn't?
Barbara is still missing.
Wayne moves on. Eddie doesn’t.
That was a year ago.
Eddie never trusted the calm that came after the chaos.
Not when the chaos brought so much change.
King Steve Harrington had cut off his most beloved and loyal subjects of friends and begins to hang out with Jonathan Byers of all people. The dude who beat his face in and practically stole his girlfriend. Eddie expects that to fall through due to the fact that Nancy only talks to Jonathan at lunch, but it doesn’t. For a full year Steve sits there silently until one day he just disappears.
But this change however small is massive to ever observant Eddie.
He asks.
He learns.
Apparently, Nancy and Steve got in a huge fight at the huge annual Halloween party Eddie was selling at in the backyard. Apparently, it got so bad Steve had to leave.
And it’s not only that.
King Steve Harrington gets dethroned.
It’s no secret that Billy is obsessed with what Harrington was only a year ago, constantly trying to bait him into the cruelty that he abandoned. The same cruelty that Billy is no stranger to himself, the one he loves.
It makes Eddie’s skin crawl.
He makes sure to keep his sheep far away from the man.
He hears whispers of Will Byers from the younger of his party, the title the boy was gifted and the air like sick that follows him.
Zombie Boy
Eddie understands.
The wildfire grows closer.
It’s night. It’s cold. Like every night before: it’s lonely.
Eddie is awake with his guitar writing the chorus of a song he has yet to name. Each note sounds wrong and out of place but he’s too distracted to really care.
He couldn’t tell anyone why if asked- just that the sky outside his window is strangely wrong and the air tastes like fire from something entirely unknown to him.
He runs his tongue over his upper teeth with a sigh, setting down his sweetheart and flopping onto his back. There are dirty clothes under him as well as random papers covered in notes with no finish. He feels like he’s stranded in a loop with no way back to the now. The true time has been ripped from him and he is stuck in his own never ending purgatory of miss and rot.
His fingers run over the matted fabric of his blanket and he sighs, imaging not for the first time that it’s something else.
If there is one thing Eddie has never learned how to do it is to move on.
Missing is a staple in what makes him him.
Eddie can feel the missing in his bones.
He can feel the breeze of his open window move over his face and he closes his eyes, trying hard to think about anything but what he’s lost.
A whine.
Eddie freezes with eyes opening wide and breath held still. His hands grip the fabric as he waits and waits…
Another, louder.
He sits up so fast he nearly falls out of bed, scrambling over to the window and practically launching himself out of it in his uncoordinated hurry.
He stares into the mouth of the woods with wide eyes and his heart pounding in his ears.
The sound of gravel crunching.
He looks down.
His shoulders suddenly light with reincarnation the word that falls from his mouth feels like the exhale of the first breath of a dead man coming alive.
“Ozzy?”
Ozzy doesn’t respond.
Not from where he is lying sickeningly still at the bottom of Eddie’s window.
In the dark Eddie can’t see much but he knows his wolf when he sees him. He sprints out of his room without even grabbing shoes and slides to his knees the second he makes it outside. He doesn’t care that they bleed.
Ozzy looks so much bigger than he remembered. The wolf’s body is massive from where he is curled in on himself. Eddie can feel his hands shaking as he reaches out to the wolf and carefully untucks his head from his body.
“Oz?” He whispers.
Eddie can feel emotion choking him as he looks down at Ozzy’s bloody swollen face through a gleam of unshed tears. The wolf blinks up at him with big wet brown eyes and before Eddie can even say anything Ozzy is laying his head on Eddie’s lap with a shaky sigh. Ozzy closes his eyes.
“I know.” Eddie finally sobs as he leans around Ozzy’s head and cradles him the best that he can, voice breaking and crackling in his throat with the choking of separation finally leaving him. “I missed you too.”
