Chapter Text
The sound of Dustin’s sobbing slowly faded until Eddie heard nothing, not even the sound of his own ragged breaths. He hated making Dustin cry. He loved that kid, like the little brother he never had. He’d have done anything for Dustin…he’d sacrifice himself to save the kid…Dustin saw him as a hero, someone to admire…Eddie hoped that after graduation he’d stick around town, help his uncle make some improvements on the trailer, play some local bars, maybe get something going, maybe even hit a few places in Indianapolis. He’d told Dustin that next summer, when he wasn’t at camp, he could be his roadie. The way Dustin had smiled at him…damn, he wished Dustin was his brother. Dustin always looked at him like he knew everything…made him feel like he could do anything if he just tried…like he was worth something.
The darkness seeped in all around him, darkness streaked through with a bright flashes of blood red. Eddie couldn’t see himself, didn’t even feel himself. It was like he was here and not here at the same time. He wasn’t sure if he was alive or dead, solid or ghostly. He felt like he was able to move, but at the same time he didn’t exactly feel anything either. The darkness that surrounded him was populated by dark shapes, winged shapes that twisted and swirled around him like winged demons.
Demobats…or maybe small mobats.
Eddie’s heart began to pound rapidly in his chest, slamming hard enough that he felt for sure that it was going to break through his chest–even if he couldn't see his chest–but he could almost feel his ribs beginning to crack when he heard his name being screamed over and over…
It was Dustin…crying, screaming his name…Eddie twisted and turned, swinging out at the shadows, but he still couldn’t exactly see or feel his body. He felt himself starting to hyperventilate as he twisted and turned again. As the winged shadows whipped past him, he could feel the air move with their passage, but then suddenly, there was nothing. Only an inky darkness he couldn’t see through. Dustin’s sobs became distant until he could no longer hear them… followed by silence.
Everything faded until he was left in the quiet and the dark.
It was peaceful, a peaceful nothingness.
In the dark he didn’t have to think about being the freak, the outcast. He didn’t have to wonder why his father had died in prison, or how his mother had dumped him on his uncle’s doorstep one night and took off, never to be heard from again. Probably the best thing she’d ever done for him because Uncle Wayne had been a better parent then either of his real ones. His uncle had taught him to play guitar, to drive, change a tire, and a dozen other things.
Fuck, Uncle Wayne actually cared about him, loved him. His uncle had told him dozens of time that he wasn't a burden or a freak, that he was a good kid. Eddie felt a sudden pang of guilt, mixed with a deep, nearly overwhelming sadness.
Uncle Wayne would be all alone now…now that he was dead…fuck…That last thing he’d ever wanted to do was hurt his uncle…fuck…He was always letting someone he cared about down…
Before the feelings of guilt could overtake him, the peaceful nothingness swept over him again. Eddie felt as if he was sinking, slowly falling backwards into the darkness, letting it wrap around him, hold him, ease his pain and suffering. He tried to simply give up, to let the darkness take him. Maybe it would be better to be nothing. He couldn’t hurt the people he loved, then…Dustin, his uncle, the rest of the Hellfire club…his band…
Just as Eddie was about to really give up and let himself fade into that nothingness that was calling to him like a siren, he heard a distant sound. He wasn’t sure what it was, it was so far away.
He was almost unsure if he’d actually heard anything at all when he heard it again…a voice…
Maybe it was a memory. He was just remembering…something…a voice…except it wasn’t the memory of a voice. It sounded real as if he was really hearing it.
But he was dead, wasn’t he? The dead couldn’t hear could they? Did the zombies hear in Night of the Living Dead? For a moment his mind was distracted as he tried to remember if the zombies could hear when the voice broke through again, calling his name…Was it calling his name?
He tried to ignore it. It was only a whisper of sound, but slowly the sound became clearer and clearer, more and more insistent, more and more urgent.
“Eddie!! Eddie!! Please Eddie!! Please help me!”
Eddie Munson’s eyes flew open.
The moment his eyes opened, the pain came rushing in.
Eddie groaned loudly and rolled onto his side as the pain from the dozens of bites made his entire body burn. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and tried to breathe through the pain. His entire body burned with each breath, but as he breathed slowly, the pain eased enough for him to open his eyes.
Eddie nearly choked in surprise, because he was in his room lying on his own bed. It took him by surprise because he had been caught outside by those demonic little shit bats, so how did he get back to his room? He looked around slowly, realizing as he did so that he was still in the upside down–this was the upside down version of his room.
Slowly, Eddie pushed himself up to a sitting position before he hesitantly looked down at himself. His shirt was torn, bloody and there was dried blood on his skin, along with some dark purple bruises and angry red scars that resembled teeth marks, mouth shapes, but they were mostly healed, as if the wounds had happened weeks ago, but that wasn’t right…
Sighing Eddie muttered as he looked at his shirt. “Damn it, I fucking love this shirt…”
He didn’t move for a few seconds as he stared at his torn shirt and the dried blood, not all of it his, trying to piece together what had happened.
“Did I die?” he asked out loud, reaching down to lightly touch one of the healed wounds. He was only answered with silence.
Looking around, Eddie reached up to pull off his skull bandana. His room looked like it did when they had been in here earlier, filled with the things he had in his room on the other side, along with the ash that seemed to constantly fall in the upside down. The door to his room was closed and everything was quiet.
Standing up slowly, Eddie wobbled a little. He felt weak in the knees and a little light-headed. He reached out and laid his hand on the wall when he heard the voice again, the one he was beginning to think had been a dream or a hallucination.
“Eddie!!”
Eddie jerked, turned around, his eyes wide. No one was there, but the voice sounded like it had been at his shoulder, yelling in his ear.
“Fuck!” he hissed again, a shudder running over his entire body. The voice had been female, and vaguely familiar. He wanted to tell himself that it was some random girl but it wasn’t. No, he was lying to himself. The voice, he knew who the voice belonged to…
It had been Chrissy’s voice.
Tears immediately sprang to Eddie’s eyes, his mind flooded with the memory of Chrissy sitting at the picnic table, smiling shyly, her lovely blue eyes filled with pain. Granted, her desire to buy drugs from him had been its own testimony to the pain she felt, but her eyes had looked haunted. He’d seen it and it had broken his heart. He’d hoped when he took her to his uncle’s trailer that he could get her to talk to him. Maybe share a beer, smoke a joint, talk a little, get her to open up, but then Vecna had taken her…
Eddie swallowed hard as the memory, the horror of watching her die…what that monster had done to her–to her and the others, but most especially to Chrissy…
Licking his lips, Eddie looked around his room, but like before, everything remained quiet. He dropped down to his knees and reached under his bed, tugged out an old guitar case, and laid it on his bed. He flipped the case open. Inside was his first guitar, an acoustic, nothing special, faded, a little banged up in places, just something his uncle had picked up at the pawn shop in town, but this guitar had been the best gift Eddie had ever gotten.
Grinning at the guitar, Eddie picked it up, his smile widening as he heard the sound of something inside the guitar moving. Flipping it over, Eddie gave the instrument a shake and a baggy of weed fell out.
“Cool…” Eddie grinned as he grabbed the bag and shoved it into his jacket pocket. He ran his fingers along the case’s lining and found the small tear. He reached in with two fingers and pulled out another baggy; this one had some joints in it. He reached in a second time and pulled out one more baggy. The second baggy had a handful of capsules inside, each one filled with Special K. Frowning, Eddie looked down at the bag in his hand. He’d only ever tried Special K once in his life and all it had really done was put him to sleep, which was why he preferred weed. He knew where he could get harder drugs, but so far this was as far as he’d ever gone. He liked to relax, but he didn’t like being out of control, to be so far gone that he had no idea what was going on. Taking both bags, he shoved them into his jacket pockets.
As he shoved the bag in the back pocket of his jeans, Eddie got to his feet and walked over to the table beside his bed. He pulled open a drawer and grabbed the pack of cigarettes that lay within. He frowned and stopped just before he shoved them into his jacket pocket. These looked like his regular cigarettes, but this was the upside down. Pulling one out, Eddie examined it. It looked like his regular cigarettes, but would an upside down cig kill him? The upside down weed? Did it matter? With a small shrug and a little exhale, Eddie shoved the pack into his jacket pocket just as Chrissy’s face rose in his mind’s eye, her sad, scared eyes, the way she had talked about feeling like she was going crazy, losing her mind. She’d been so scared, her gaze haunted…and…and…he’d left her there…
Eddie shuddered and gave his head a shake with an effort to force his train of thought to derail, Eddie wiped at the tears that stung his eyes when he heard her voice again.
“Eddie!!”
His entire body jerked as he spun around. It sounded like she was right there, right behind him, but he was alone. Could she be haunting him? Licking his lips, Eddie looked around his room, not sure what he was looking for–her ghost maybe? But why here, why in the upside down?
Running his hands through his hair, he muttered under his breath. “Fuck, fuck, fuck…” Eddie hurried over to the door of his bedroom and started to push it open.
The door didn’t budge.
Eddie frowned, grasped the knob, and pushed again. The door moved, but only barely. Biting his bottom lip, Eddie pushed with more force and realized that something was definitely blocking the door. He tried to be quiet as he leaned his arm against the door while holding the knob and shoved with all his strength. The door moved a little bit while the sound of something heavy scraped against the floor. The door was now open, but only wide enough that he could fit his fingers through. Moving around to the crack, Eddie pressed his eye to the opening to look out into the hall. It was difficult to see much of anything, but it looked like some of the furniture had been moved to barricade the door. For a moment Eddie was confused as to why Dustin or the others would do that, but ten his heart tightened and twisted in his chest and his eyes stung again with tears. If they had thought he was dead, Dustin and the others might have moved his body in here and barricaded the door to protect him…to protect his body from the demobats, and the other things that roamed the upside down. He smiled at the thought. It was a gesture that made him feel like at least these guys had cared about him.
But even so, he was trapped in his bedroom at the moment and he needed to get out…
Glancing toward his window, he sighed, he and Dustin had made sure that the windows were blocked…so no getting out that way. Looking back to his door Eddie took a breath.
“All right big boy, let’s see if we can’t open this…”
He threw himself against the door and with all his strength, Eddie shoved. When no monsters came running to the trailer screaming for his blood, he did it again, and again. On the third shove he got the door open enough that he could shimmy through!
For a moment, he thought about grabbing his old acoustic guitar, at the same time reaching up to grasp his guitar pick that he wore around his neck only to realize that it was gone. He frowned and looked down at himself, pulling the neck of his shirt down, but the pick was gone. He felt a moment of panic, which quickly eased because he thought that maybe Dustin had taken it. He hoped that was the case and it wasn’t just lost out there, maybe in the belly of some demobat. If anyone had it, he hoped it was Dustin, the little idiot, he thought fondly.
Looking around the room one more time, Eddie turned and started to push his way through the crack in the door, shoving the furniture that had been piled up to block his door. Each time he made a noise, Eddie would stop and listen, but if there were any monsters nearby, they weren’t responding to any of the noise he was making. Not that he was going stop trying to be quiet, but it was odd. Maybe he was just getting lucky, maybe the bats and Vecna and everything else had been defeated while he was…dead…Or maybe they were in hiding, or off doing something else.
God he hoped the lack of monster response was because they had defeated that fucking monster…
“Eddie please!!!”
The sound of Chrissy’s voice calling for him made Eddie jump a foot and spin around in the small hall to look for the source. Again, she had sounded as if she was standing at his shoulder.
Dragging his teeth over his bottom lip, Eddie whispered aloud.
“Chrissy?”
He waited a beat and whispered again. “Chrissy, are you here?”
But nothing happened, no voice yelled his name, no ghostly apparition appeared in front of him, no monsters rushed toward him in response to the sound of his voice…nothing.
“You’re losing your mind, Eddie…” Eddie mumbled to himself while he ran his fingers through his dark hair as he made his way down the short hall. He shoved a few things out of the way, coughing just a little as the air seemed filled with thick smoke and more ash than before. The smoke was thick enough that he couldn’t quite see in front of him, which was odd since the trailer wasn’t that big. He frowned when he noticed that the walls looked black and burned in places. He ran his fingers through the blood soot, his brow furrowed as he looked down at his fingers before he wiped them clean on his pants. Just as he began to step into the living room, Eddie stopped mid-step, his eyes going wide in shock.
The living room of the small trailer was gone, torn open, completely missing–destroyed. What remained was burning slowly with thick black smoke that slowly rose from the broken remains of the trailer. As he slowly looked up, Eddie could see that the sky itself above him had been torn, a rip ran through the blood red sky and continued into the distance. The thick, toxic black smoke from his burning trailer drifted upward and out through the tear in the sky. He couldn’t see much but a few glimpses of the other side, enough to see that the trailer on the other side was burning, destroyed like this was one, but he could also see hints of the outside. What Eddie saw was enough to cause a wave of nausea to wash over him. Vecna had won. The beast had torn a hole–no, he’d ripped a wound into Hawkins.
“Fuck me…” Eddie whispered in shock. “...looks even more like Mordor now…”
“EDDIE!!!! PLEASE!!”
The sound of Chrissy’s voice cut through the air like a knife. Eddie spun around, his eyes wide. This time her voice sounded clearly…there was no way he could pretend he hadn’t heard her. It was Chrissy Cunningham and she was scared, and called to him for help.
But why him?
“Chrissy?!” Eddie yelled, looking around for her.
He still didn’t see her anywhere, but this time he felt something, like a tug, like someone had tied a string around his heart and was pulling hard on it, pulling him toward the woods.
“What the fuck is going on?” Eddie mumbled. The pull he felt was insistent, like a plea, urging him, pleading for him to follow the pull. Like a geas placed upon him, he realized with a shake of his head.
Rubbing at the spot on his chest where he felt the tug, Eddie glanced back to the wound in the sky, then back toward the woods, and the urgent tug he felt. He had no idea what he should do. Should he try to get back to Hawkins? Could he get back? He wasn’t really clear on his current condition. Was he alive or dead, was he a zombie, a ghoul, or something else? Zombie seemed a good choice Eddie thought, but just as quickly he dismissed the idea. When he thought about it, his zombie hypothesis didn’t really hold any weight because he was able to think, he wasn’t craving brains, and except for the scars on his body he didn’t seem to be rotting away or anything nasty like that. The Monster Manual or the Fiend Folio detailed several different types of undead, which he supposed he might be one, an undead if he had died, which he wasn’t sure about. Maybe a revenant? Though a revenant wasn’t dead exactly, at least from the little he had read about such things. Did he have a need for revenge? Fuck yeah, he did! Except he wasn’t so sure he had died, but Dustin had thought he’d died and that kid was crazy smart. There was no way Dustin would make a mistake like that, would he? And if he hadn’t been dead, why would they leave him here? Wouldn’t they have tried to get him out? Maybe that was why the room was barricaded, maybe they couldn’t get him out (dead weight, he concluded grimly), and had gone for help or planned to come back, but hadn’t been able to?
Maybe they hadn’t come back for him because of Vecna…had Vecna really won? Maybe he hadn’t won, though the great big ugly tear in the sky seemed to say that Vecna had won. All right, so let’s say he wasn’t dead, or hadn’t died. If Vecna had won, where were Dustin and the others? Were they safe, or…not? Eddie felt his stomach roil. What if Dustin…no…no… no… no…Eddie shook his head. He was not going to finish that thought. Dustin was safe, he had to be because Eddie didn’t think he could go on if he thought Dustin was gone, especially after he sacrificed himself to save the kid. It would kill him to think he’d failed to save Dustin.
Taking a deep breath through his nose, Eddie brought his mind back to the problem at hand. Was he alive or dead. And if dead, what was he? Could he get home and why was he hearing Chrissy’s voice calling his name?
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck…” Eddie muttered as he began to walk without even realizing that his feet were moving. In a moment, he had passed through the torn wall of the trailer (avoiding the hot edges of the tear), and was outside. “Guess I’m going that way…” he said to himself as the tugging in his chest pulled him in the direction of the woods.
*
It wasn’t long before Eddie stopped moving because lying on the ground was the bike he’d ridden earlier…the demobats chasing him as he tried to put as much distance as he could between himself and the strange dimensional hole in the trailer as he tried to save Dustin and Hawkins.
Lightly kicking the tire, Eddie’s gaze wandered. He saw the trashcan shield lying on the ground next to the makeshift spear he’d been carrying. Walking over to the discarded items, Eddie picked up the shield and the spear. He held them, looking at them before turning his eyes to the sky, but he saw nothing alive up there–no bats, just the thick, black smoke, the angry, blood red sky, and the slash that cut through the sky like a knife wound.
“Eddie…” Eddie went still when he heard Chrissy’s voice this time. Unlike the last few times he’d heard her voice, this time she wasn’t shouting or screaming. This time her voice sounded different, very different. This time Chrissy sounded as if she was ready to give up.
He didn’t hear her cry out again, but Eddie could hear the sounds of Chrissy crying. Slowly he turned as he heard the sounds of her sobbing as if she was right there in front of him, within his reach. The sound was filled with fear and a deep, soul shattering despair.
Eddie’s heart hurt just listening to her. “Chrissy, where are you?” he asked softly. “Can you hear me?”
The sounds of her crying made him feel not only a sense of urgency, but Eddie also felt both angry and sick. He hated hearing her crying, hated that she was scared and upset, and he could do nothing to help. Even if he was hallucinating, the sounds of her despair filled him with pain and desperation to help her, to find her and let her know she wasn’t alone, she was safe…Fuck, what was he doing?? Chrissy Cunningham was dead, he’d seen her die!
But then again…was he dead?
“All right Chrissy, if it’s you, I’m coming, if you’re some fucking Vecna henchman, well…” Eddie adjusted his hold on the spear. “...guess we’ll just see what happens.”
Letting out a deep sigh, Eddie hurried back over to the bike. He picked it up after slinging the shield onto his back and, with the makeshift spear in one hand, he mounted the bike and headed into the woods.
*
This time, as Eddie rode, he continued to hear Chrissy crying. She’d hadn’t called out for him in a long while, but the sound of her gentle, heartbreaking sobs was still audible to him. The sound fluctuated from loud to soft, sometimes sounding as if she were right behind him on the bike, to other times sounding like she was far away from him. He stopped questioning why he was hearing her, whether she was a ghost or his imagination, but as he rode, he became more and more certain that if he stayed on course, he would find her at the end of the tugging he felt in his chest. Riding through the woods was uncomfortable, especially at first when Eddie tried to ride carefully, avoiding the vines that led–or had led–to Vecna. Oddly, the thick vines that were usually everywhere, the vines that alerted Vecna to their presence when they had first been in the upside down, were gone, or at least mostly gone. The few he saw were shriveled and dead looking. It took him a good five minutes to stop worrying about them, especially when nothing happened after he’d accidentally run over a few. After that, he began to move quicker.
Eddie kept feeling as if eyes among the trees and shadows were watching him as he rode the old bike. The complete silence of the woods was really disconcerting. At first he’d been riding the bike as if the demobats were after him again, but it was clear, whether he was alive or undead, he couldn’t keep that pace up forever. He had to slow down and ride at a more moderate pace. For being undead, his legs were aching a bit from riding like he was being chased by bats from the fires of Mount Doom.
As he rode, Eddie began to worry about where he was going. Chrissy’s crying had faded to the point that he wasn’t always hearing it. It was coming and going, fading in and out like it was on a breeze until finally, at one point he stopped hearing her altogether. For a few minutes as Eddie rode the bike through the woods, he considered stopping, turning back, or maybe trying to find a way out of the upside down, but that was when the tug in his chest would become more insistent. He had no idea where or if he was going to find Chrissy, he was just letting the pull in his chest guide him, even if it was probably stupid of him to follow a tug, but the thought of Chrissy…her smile, that shy way she laughed…and that terrible moment when she died…if there was even the slimmest of chances that she was alive here in the upside down, then he couldn’t–wouldn’t abandon her.
To keep himself focused, Eddie started to sing to himself.
“Take a look in the pool and what do you see
In the dark depths there faces beckoning me
Can't you see them it's plain for all to see
They were there oh I know you don't believe me
Oh, I've never felt so strange
But, I'm not going insane…”
Suddenly Eddie was out of the woods, the change was so sudden that he nearly wrecked as he rode out into a clear space. He brought the bike to a stop, sliding on the side as he skidded to a halt. Just beyond him, he saw what looked like a ring of trees and crumbling stone or brick towers, or maybe the remains of some buildings–or castles? It was difficult to determine what they were from where he stood, but the area looked almost burned in places, with scorched marks on the ground, as if something had scorched the place from above while leaving the towers broken and the trees sickly. The place reminded him of something he would see in one of his roleplaying books. The trees looked desiccated and the remains of structures looked like the haunted remains of some wizard’s tower. While he couldn’t see anyone, the pull suddenly felt much, much stronger, to the point that it was almost painful.
Lightning suddenly ripped across the sky, lighting up the upside down’s gloom. Eddie flinched, but the sudden bright light illuminated something in the circle near one of the trees. It looked for all the world like someone was standing super close to one of the trees. Narrowing his gaze, Eddie tried to see what was there when another bolt of lightning flashed across the blood red sky, illuminating the dim, ashen atmosphere.
This time Eddie thought he could make out a head, maybe a pair of shoulders. “Man this place is fucking creepy…” he muttered under his breath.
Another bolt danced across the sky, forcing Eddie’s focus from the creepy circle of trees to the sky. The storm, or whatever it was, seemed to be gaining strength. More lightning streaked across the sky and then a bolt suddenly came crashing down to blast into a tree in the circle. The tree burst into flames. That’s when he heard Chrissy scream, but this time, instead of sounding as if she was right next to him, the sound came from in front of him…and if he wasn’t mistaken, from the tree where he thought someone was standing.
“Chrissy?!” Eddie called out.
“EDDIE!!!” Chrissy answered him with a terrified scream.
Without thinking twice, without considering what might be waiting for him, Eddie turned the bike toward the sound of her scream and peddled as quickly as he could. The lightning storm sounded like a battle of dragons above him, the sounds of lightning cracking across the sky, the wind picking up to create a roar, and the pull on his chest, sped him forward into the circle of trees. When he entered the clearing, Eddie saw her, Chrissy Cunningham. Alive. She was being held by thick vines or maybe they were branches, holding her to the trunk of a blackened tree. Several were wrapped around her legs, two around her waist, and a couple wrapped around her arms. She had gotten her arms partly free and was focusing her attention on the vines that were wrapped around her waist. Chrissy was frantically struggling to free herself, her fingertips were bloody, and Eddie could see that one or two of her nails were broken. Some of the vines around her waist held deep scratches from Chrissy’s struggles.
Chrissy looked up from her frantic struggled. Her face was smeared with dirt, blood, and soot. “Eddie!” Her voice was filled with relief and hope when their eyes locked. She reached for him as a heartbreaking sob escaped her lips. Eddie took her hands, his heart beating a million miles a minute. He felt a wild mix of emotions twisting and turning in his chest at the sight of her, whole, and alive. He wanted to cry, he wanted to whoop with joy, Eddie wanted to pull her into his arms, wrap them tight around her and never let her go. He wanted to protect her, to hold her safe. It was an effort of will for him to gently release her hands, even as Chrissy tried to hold on to him, fresh tears running down her cheeks as her voice broke.
“Eddie…”
“Hold still, I’m gonna get you out,” Eddie said gently, surprising himself when he brought one of her hands up and gently kissed her knuckles. “Trust me, okay?”
Chrissy looked back at him, tears freely running down her face, cutting a line through the blood and soot that covered her pale skin. Her look was one of complete and total trust, and it stabbed right through Eddie’s heart. “Okay,” she said simply with a short nod, and though he could tell it was difficult for her, she let go.
Feeling a surge of pride in her, Eddie reached into his right front pocket. Eddie pulled out his pocket knife. It wasn’t super sharp, even though he always kept the blade clean and sharp like his uncle had taught him, but hopefully it would be enough to help Chrissy. Flicking the blade open, Eddie stabbed into one of the vines and began to saw through it. Over the next few minutes, Eddie hacked and sawed at the thick branch-like vines, while Chrissy remained still. The only sound she made was her ragged breathing, the occasional sniffs and a few gasps of pain when one of the branches cut her or pulled too tight against her.
The damn things bled when Eddie cut into them, thick, dark liquid that had a slight reddish hue, almost like blood and smelled like iron. When he made the first cut and the liquid began to ooze from the wound, Chrissy had gasped, but said nothing. Eddie had a few things he thought about saying, but decided to keep his comments to himself and focus on getting Chrissy free from her prison.
Crouching at her feet, Eddie worked until his knuckles ached, his hands covered in the thick blood-like substance, cutting the last of the vine-like branches that were wrapped tight around Chrissy’s legs. He could feel that she was shivering a little, or shaking. He resisted the urge to lay a hand on her leg to let her know it was okay. Eddie also did his best to keep his focus on cutting at the vines and not on looking at her legs. The last thing he wanted was for Chrisy to think he was some sort of perv.
“Definitely not the time…” he muttered to himself.
“Eddie?” Chrissy whispered his name. “Did you say something?”
Glancing up, Eddie gave her a reassuring grin. “Just wondering how you got here?” He turned his attention back to sawing at the vine with his pocket knife. “Hell, wondering how I got here myself…”
Chrissy shrugged, biting the side of her bottom lip at the same time. “I don’t know…it's…” She paused. Her voice had a soft tremble in it, drawing Eddie’s attention back to her. Her expression looked haunted, as if there was something terrible, a memory…or perhaps not a memory, Eddie thought, more like a ghost of something terrible lurking behind her eyes. It both frightened him and worried him. He wasn’t frightened of Chrissy, but for her. He wondered what she had been through this whole time, all this time when he–when everyone–had thought she was dead…
“Hey, you know, don’t worry about it right now, okay?” He grinned up at her. “Let’s just focus on one thing at a time…like…” He cut through the last of the vines, yanked it loose and threw it behind him where it landed along with the other bits and pieces of vines that he had steadily been cutting to free her. The moment the last bit was cut away and Eddie stood, Chrissy flung herself from the tree and at Eddie. His eyes opened wide in surprise, only barely having time to open his arms and grab her.
Chrissy wrapped her arms tight around Eddie’s neck, burying her face against his shoulder, immediately breaking down into sobs. Frowning slightly, Eddie wrapped his arms tight around her and pressed his nose and mouth against her hair. He wanted nothing more than to protect Chrissy, to protect her from all the things that had happened to her, from all the pain of the world. Closing his eyes, Eddie inhaled and breathed in the scent of her hair. Despite whatever had happened to her, her hair smelled like sunshine, like summer flowers and long, lazy evenings lying in fields of clover, watching the stars coming out. Chrissy was the type of girl you gave flowers to, the girl you wrote songs for, who you embarrassed yourself in front of your friends when you sang your song to her, but you didn’t care, because Chrissy was worth it.
Chrissy was the type of girl a guy would go to hell and back for just to see her smile.
Gently, Eddie rubbed a hand up and down Chrissy’s back, trying to soothe her. He could feel the slight trembling of her body since she was pressed up against him. He began to rock back and forth, something he remembered his mother doing when he was really small. She could pick him up and hold him close, humming softly as she stroked his back, telling him not to worry, nothing bad was going to get him. Except she lied, and all the bad things got him…
Banishing away thoughts of his mother, Eddie instead focused on that night, right before Chrissy’s death, that moment in the van as he drove her to the trailer, both of them high as kites, smoking a large joint between them, laughing as they sang at the top of their lungs. Chrissy had been all smiles, her blue eyes bright, her entire being relaxed, singing along with him before she would break down into a fit of giggles. She had been so beautiful that night, and for just a few minutes, she’d been happy…
Gently, Eddie swayed with her and started to sing.
“They say we're young and we don't know
We won't find out until we grow
Well I don't know if all that's true
'Cause you got me, and baby, I got you…”
Eddie continued to sway, his lips moving gently against her hair as he sang. Chrissy had stopped crying, had gone quiet, but she didn’t pull away as he continued to hold her.
“They say our love won't pay the rent
Before it's earned, our money's all been spent
I guess that's so, we don't have a pot
But at least I'm sure of all the things we got…”
Eddie grinned when he heard the sound of Chrissy’s muffled singing along with him.
“Babe,
I got you Babe…”
Smiling wider, Eddie sang with a little more gusto, but this time Chrissy joined in. Her voice was small, a little strained at first, but when she looked up, her tear stained eyes were a bright blue, made brighter by the fact they were bloodshot, but made brighter still by the smile on her face. Her voice, like that night that seemed so long ago to Eddie, was beautiful, blending with his perfectly.
“I got flowers in the spring,
I got you to wear my ring
And when I'm sad, you're a clown
And if I get scared, you're always around
So let them say your hair's too long …”
Eddie winked at Chrissy, flipping the side of his hair with one hand when they sang the lyrics.
“Cause I don't care, with you…” Chrissy grinned and wrinkled her nose, the gesture so cute it made Eddie’s heart skip a beat, but when she followed it by reaching up to lightly tug at a lock of his hair, and Eddie thought he might pass out.
“I can't go wrong
Then put your little hand in mine…”
Eddie stood straight with one hand behind his back. He put his other hand out to her with a wide grin. Chrissy giggled as she took his offered hand and he pulled her close. He laid her hand on his shoulder, but Chrissy surprised him when she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. Slowly, almost scared, Eddie put his hands on her waist, shocked when Chrissy didn’t yank herself away from him. Looking down into her staring blue eyes, there was a moment in which Eddie was sure he forgot to breathe. The two of them started to dance, a little sway back and forth without really moving from their spot, gazing at each other as they continued to sing to each other.
“There ain't no hill or mountain we can't climb
Babe!!
I got you Babe!”
Eddie looked down at Chrissy as they sang together, both of them smiling, grinning, and giggling.
“I got you Babe…I got you Babe!”
On the last line, Eddie reached up and grabbed Chrissy’s hands, both of them singing as he gently spun her around and then pulled her back to wrap his arms around her waist before he lifted her off her feet. Chrissy let out a startled laugh that melted into happy giggles as she looked down at him. For a moment everything, all the horrors, the fear, and the unknown vanished as Eddie slowly brought her back down, and gently set Chrissy on her feet again.
“I got you Babe…” he sang softly.
Chrissy was smiling, but her bottom lip had begun to tremble, fresh tears in her eyes making the blue sparkle like sapphires.
“Chrissy…” Eddie whispered, reaching up to brush one of her tears from her cheek. “...don’t cry.”
“You came for me Eddie,” she whispered, her voice shaking a little. “...I heard your song…and you came for me…”
Eddie smiled, blushing a little and shoving his hands nervously into his pockets, suddenly unsure what to do with them. “Of course I did, Chrissy…” Eddie looked down for a moment, dragging his teeth over his bottom lip before he looked into her eyes again and said clearly to her,
“I’ll never leave you Chrissy, I’ll always come running for you…”