Dead Like Me

It has been two weeks since Vecna succeeded and cracked the world open. They lost so many, more than just those needed to split the barrier between their world and the upside-down. Steve can still see Eddie’s prone torn body, Dustin sobbing over him when he closes his eyes before bed. More had died when the rift opened, burning a permanent opening between them but Eddie is the death that sticks with him.

Things have been almost normal despite it, there are plenty of places folks can’t go and plenty of spaces now turned into emergency shelters for those who lost their homes to the rift. No monsters though, no bats or dogs or demogorgons. It has all been quiet, just the business of a disaster aftermath. Steve splits his time between volunteering and checking perimeters when he is able.

Each day he is a little more tired, a little more weak. He doesn't know what is wrong. His wounds are healing, slowly but they have stopped bleeding every time he stretches his arms over his head so they are making progress. Food has lost its taste though and he swears everything smells off.

He should be checking the perimeter now, at the very least some of it, the stretch that goes through his neighborhood, his backyard in fact. Pool drained and gaping where the rift splits through it and into the neighbor's yard, the eerie red glow replacing the blue that always bothered him after Barb’s death. He is not sure the red is better but it is easier for the curtains to block out and Steve appreciates that, making it easier to get some sleep.

Tonight Steve can't bring himself to get up off the couch, he came home after volunteering and barely managed a shower before his energy abandoned him. After a short restless break lay out on his bed skin air drying he managed to pull on fresh clothes and come down stairs. He spent five minutes staring into the fridge stomach churning before he flopped down on the couch and pulled an afghan over himself while reruns play on the television.

That had been at least an hour ago, he is not sure exactly how long but he has absently seen the opening credits of at least two shows. He is not paying attention to it, drifting in and out, an explosion on the television startling him back to alert more than once. The show switches, something with less action, less noise and he falls deeper.

Steve dreams. There is the cold of the upside down. Demobats chirping and screeching as he runs. His feet ache, stinging like they have been cut open and a glance down shows  bloody footprints trailing him. His lunges hurt and his legs burn as he runs. To where he isn't sure but he just knows it is more than the bats chasing him as he hears a familiar screeching roar that has his blood running cold.

He can't see it when he looks back, too much darkness to see through but he knows it is there. Knows if he stops running he is done for, it is going to get him and rip him apart like Barb.

He is so busy looking behind him he is not watching where he is running and he runs smack into what feels like a solid wall but walls don't have hands. Steve shouts fighting the hold until his eyes land on the face of the man they belong to. It is Eddie, he seems bigger than before, stronger, his eyes otherworldly with a tinge of red, his hands are freezing where they hold him.

Steve cannot help staring, "Eddie?" he realizes he must be dreaming, that this cannot be real but he doesn't want it to be just a dream

Eddie grins, a hint of fang catching on his bottom lip, "don't worry big boy I'm coming for you."

Steve shoots up into a sitting position on the couch as he wakes, heart pounding as the afghan falls from his lap. He sucks his bottom lip in, eyes stinging and chest hurting, as he thinks about Eddie.

There is a scratching sound behind the curtains blocking the sliding glass door from view and Steve's heart rate kicks up all over again. At this rate he is going to find himself in an early grave. Steve feels even more exhausted than he had before his dream, like he really has been running for his life. Aching as he pushes up off the couch, fingers curling around the nail bat he keeps in reach at all times.

He doesn't think it is an upside down creature, they are not polite enough to merely scratch at the window, and he is pretty sure getting inside his house wouldn't be a priority. There are plenty of folks displaced and choosing camping rather than the shelters. Steve thinks they are stupid but it is not as if they know the real danger that lurks in the rift cracking their town.

Still he creeps closer cautiously, bat raised ready to strike as he rips the curtain back.

He drops the bat, with a dull thud staring wide eyed.

Eddie, it's Eddie!

But it can't be real, he died, Steve saw his body.

Eddie certainly doesn't look dead, the eerie red light from the rift making him look otherworldly, almost sinister, at odds with the wide toothy smile he is giving Steve as he waves at him through the glass. He must still be dreaming, has to be. Eddie points at the flimsy lock on the door and Steve shuffles forward ripping the door open.

“Eddie?” His eyes and throat sting again wishing this was real.

"Invite me in," Eddie commands, nodding his head behind Steve as if he needs clarification.

Steve nods like a broken bobblehead, "sure, come on in Eddie." Stepping back and nearly tripping when the handle of the bat rolls under his foot.

“Easy there sweet thing, miss me?”  Eddie catches Steve by the elbow, backing him up until his knees hit the couch with a frown. “You look terrible?” Steve has a snotty remark about how Eddie looks on his tongue but it dies as soon as it comes because Eddie doesn't look bad, he looks a little off just like in the dream but healthy. Did he get taller? Or has Steve been misremembering his height all this time. He is pretty sure they were about the same height, Eddie looking a little shorter from all the slouching.

He is not wrong though. Steve has seen his own reflection, knows he is paler than Eddie these days, skin pulled tight going taunts and paper thin. His veins show through, a match for the dark bags under his eyes and his hair will not hold, lifeless and limp where his bangs fall against his forehead.  “Haven’t been feeling well," Steve admits, something he hasn't told anyone else no matter how many times they ask. 

It is hard to focus on anything but the cool hand that hasn't left him, another hand joins, skimming over the hinge of his jaw keeping him close. "I did miss you, we thought," Steve's voice goes tight and he has to stop for a minute to get the words out of his throat. "Well didn’t you die?” It hurts to ask. Even in a dream the words leave his mouth and all he wants to do is curl up and cry. It doesn't seem fair that he is gone, that all Steve gets is strange dreams.

A worrisome thought occurs to him, they didn't find his body when they went back. They’d had to leave him behind initially but they went back and his body wasn’t there. “Are you? Are you Vecna?” Steve stands and tries to take a step back, not that it will help him but Eddie doesn't let him grip, tightening and keeping him close.

Before Steve can spiral and panic that he is caught in Vecna’s nightmare Eddie is talking, pulling him closer against his chest, “I’m not him. He’s too weak to get in anyone's head at the moment.”

“You’re you?”

“Yes.” Steve nods accepting but still not comforted, something to off about all of this for him to feel safe. Head resting against Eddie's cold chest. It is as Eddie says, “I did die though,” that Steve realizes with dawning horror that he can't hear a heartbeat under his ear.

Steve rears back, trying to put some distance between them to get a good look at Eddie. Why can't he hear his heartbeat? This is just a dream, he shouldn't be dead right? That is an unfair disappointment for reality.

Eddie's arms are vice-like as they keep him from getting anywhere, cupping Steve's cheeks as he leans down enough to look him in the eye “Shush, shush, none of that, sweet thing." This close Steve can see the deep red around his irises, shifting and changing the normal brown, two long fangs poking out from his upper lip, looking dangerous. "You’ll feel better once you die and wake up again sweet thing.” Before Steve can ask what he means, Eddie twists his hands and with a snap he crumples lifelessly toward the ground.

-

Eddie cocks his head as Steve goes limp, arms catching him before he can hit the ground, ears straining to make sure it took. When he hears Steve's heart give its last beat he scoops him up and settles him on the couch, carefully aligning his neck. Eddie watches him for a long moment, taking in all the obvious wear Steve's body has experienced in his absence, he doesn't like it, not one bit.

Eddie strokes a hand through Steve's hair, pushing it back from his face. “You’ll feel better when you wake and I’ll be here to make sure of it.” Eddie mutters, dropping a kiss against Steve's cheek. 

Ever since he woke up in the upside down he has felt this connection to Steve, felt him drowning out here without him. It took him a while to recoup his strength having to suffice off of the creatures of the upside down. Now that he is here on this side of the rift though things should be easier and Steve will not be eating demorats or bats, or any other creature of the upside down he can lure to him. No, when Steve wakes Eddie will have secured him a nice plump human full of plenty of blood to have him looking like himself again.

Eddie drops another kiss against Steve's cold cheek as the telltale flutter of wings respond to his sumance and the living room fills with demobats. "Keep an eye on him," Eddie commands, they no longer serve Vecan, the man rendered to weak after nearly dying. Now they serve Eddie and he is going to use them and every other creature of the upside-down to turn Hawkins into the perfect home for him and Steve to rule together.

- End