Hell & Back

Chapter Two

The sun was coming in through the window above the couch. Eddie pulled the blanket over his head and groaned in annoyance. Chrissy was still asleep beside him. He could feel her breathing slowly against him. He didn't want to get up but he also didn't want Chrissy to wake up and see the effect that sleeping beside a female had done to him. He got up and quickly walked to the bathroom. 

She has a boyfriend. She has a life. Eddie thought to himself over and over again. He still didn't understand why she wanted to hide. The thing she saw couldn't follow her home, could it? Maybe she just couldn't face her mother after watching her turn into a demon. He couldn't quite put his finger on it and asking her would make it seem that he wanted her to go which clearly he didn't. 

Coming out of the bathroom he her Chrissy shout. He ran towards the living room and found her sitting up panting. He ran over to her and sat down in front of her putting a hand on her shoulder. Her hair was curled around her face and her eyes were bulging with fear. "Chrissy, it's okay. I'm here." Eddie said calmly. She was shaking in his hand. He grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around her. 

"I'm okay." Chrissy said after several moments "Just a nightmare." Before he left her, she hadn't made a sound and looked peaceful. Chrissy gave him a reassuring smile and he smiled back at her. "Breakfast?" He asked which she only nodded. He found cereal in the cabinet but the milk was old and the only other things were cans of soup. 

They sat on the floor and ate cereal out of the box joking and laughing. All of a sudden Chrissy got quiet and shushed him. He looked at her in utter confusion and than he heard what had made her tense up. The sound of a car pulling up to the house. Eddie knew his car was still out front. Damn All that proved was that he was here. 

Quickly thinking he opened the window, counting how many different footsteps and voices he heard. At least three people. He wasn't sure if the were junkies or Ricks family, either way he didn't want to find out. He motioned Chrissy out the window and followed closing the window. Once he heard a knock on the door the ran down to the boat house. 

Chrissy sat along the dock floor. "I'm sorry." She said meekly "This is all my fault." Eddie was listening by the door for any sign of somebody heading this way. He shook his head and shushed her. The sound of a twig snapping came through, he grabbed her arm and half pushed her into the boat. Eddie got in and laid down, Chrissy followed shortly and he pulled the tarp over both of them. 

He heard them walk into the boat house and he felt Chrissy tighten her grip on his arm. He couldn't make out any words being said between both of their breathing and trying to come up with some plan. He figured that they would leave when they didn't find anything but instead someone picked up one of the oars and started hitting the tarp. Eddie moved slowly but positioned himself so that he was on top of Chrissy.

After the third time he had enough of being hit. He pushed Chrissy's hand off his arm and reached into his pocket for a switchblade. He seen her eyes grow big, Eddie shook his head and signaled for her to stay hidden. He took a deep breath and jumped out of the tarp. He grabbed the person who was holding the oar and pushed him against the wall, knife under his chin.

"Eddie! Eddie, it's me Dustin." He heard one of them say "That's Steve, remember my friend I told you about." Eddie tore his gaze away from the guy he was holding and looked over at the kid he knew. "This is Robin and Max. We are here to help you." Eddie took a breath and let go of Steve Harrington. He took the tarp off and reached a hand down to Chrissy. 

"I knew you didn't kidnap her to sacrifice." Dustin said with a smirk as Chrissy climbed out of the boat. "Wait, what is going on her?" Max said looking from Chrissy to Eddie. "You'll think I'm crazy." Chrissy said just above a whisper. "Try us." Robin said. Chrissy looked to Eddie who only shrugged. She told them about the nightmares and than about what happened the night before. 

In response the group started asking her questions about deposits and what she remembered of the monster and place she went to. "You believe me?" Chrissy asked. "Yeah we have kind of dealt with this kind of stuff before." Robin said "Well they have. I have only done it once and mine was more flesh based." She continued. Eddie just sat there silent. This was all just a bit to real for him.

"What did you mean by I kidnapped her?" Eddie finally spoke, breaking the hundreds of questions being asked between Chrissy and everyone. "The police have issued a missing persons report about Chrissy. They haven't released your name or anything but it's only a matter of time." Dustin explained. "And than its Hunt The Freak." Eddie said low. Chrissy reached down and took his hand once again. The group stared at them but didn't say anything. "Eddie we are going to fix this. All we have to do is kill Vecna and than Chrissy can go home and you will be fine." Dustin said 

"Oh that's all." Eddie said sarcastically. Chrissy was sitting there barely listening. She couldn't go home because that thing could come back and she also didn't want to go home. She couldn't tell anyone else about it because they would think she was crazy. All she could do was trust a bunch of people she had barely met. Also everyone thought Eddie had kidnapped her instead of saving her life. She felt terrible for putting him in this situation. 

After awhile group left and the two of them made their way back to the house, now on higher alert than before. Eddie left to take his car further into the woods so the house looked empty. Being alone brought back the fear of that creature. Chrissy tried to keep her mind busy by humming songs and cleaning up around the house. When Eddie finally walked through the door she let out a sigh and finally sat down on the couch. 

"We are going to have to come up with some sort of plan." Eddie sat after taking a long drag off of a cigarette. "A plan for what?" Chrissy said genuinely confused by which problem he wanted to address first. Eddie looked at her for a long moment and than said "If someone would come, what we would do." He said. She thought for a moment and than suggested they do what they had done to which he reminded her that they had been found. 

"We could always push the boat out and take it down the river." He said lost in thought. "Do you know how to work a boat?" Chrissy asked doubtfully. " I have many talents you don't know about Ms. Cunningham. Yes I do know how to work a boat." He said with a smile at her.

The rest of the night went by pretty much the same as the first. They stayed up well into the night talking and laughing. For the first time in her life Chrissy didn't worry about eating chips and drinking soda. She allowed all the imperfections and weird things she liked and didn't like to come out, because for once there was no one around to judge her. 

Tonight she didn't even bother to try sleeping on the couch she merely climbed down on the floor beside Eddie and fell asleep within minutes, she slept dreamlessly for the second time. Eddie stayed up a bit longer, lost in thoughts about everything that could go wrong. He laid on his back and looked over at the sleeping girl beside him. Her red hair was curling around her and her cheer uniform was wrinkled. Neither had bathed or changed clothes and he wasn't sure what to do about that but another problem for another day. He had to keep her safe that was the only thing he knew for a fact. 

Sooner or later they would have to go back to the real world, where she was a cheerleader with a star athlete boyfriend and he was the town freak. They would believe that he cursed her and meant to sacrifice he. The world would never believe she came willingly but he didn't care what the world believed. Right now in this moment she was curled up next to him and he was all that stood between her and a monster. He would save her and the hell with what happened next.