The Monsters Within // Eddie Munson

iii. D20 & the Chrissy Crumble

Katherine walked down the halls towards the theater room, opening the door only to see a table full of boys look at her in shock. "Kat!" Mike broke the silence waving her over. "When is the fill going to be here?" One of the guys she hadn't met asked. "I am the fill, douchebag."

Eddie stood up and walked next to her, "You sure you can handle all this?" He spread his hand showing their decked-out table. "My level 16 high-elf cleric, could snap you in half without even blinking." Katherine stood toe to toe with Eddie, staring into each other's eyes. 

"Okay, join the club." "Where's my shirt?" She jokingly muttered as she sat in between Mike and Dustin. Before getting hit in the face, she pulled it off of her glaring at Eddie who gave her an innocent look and shrugged. "Oh, wait I actually get one?" She asked looking down at what hit her. "Well duh." Dustin and Eddie said in sync. "Dope." Katherine got up and quickly changed shirts behind an old piece of set from a play.

"Let's kill this thing." She said, hopping down into her seat once more.

The party played for hours, and when the sun was resting low behind the Earth. It was all up to Katherine now. Everyone else was dead, and she only had one roll left to defeat Vecna.

She blew warm air into her hands, kissing Eddie's 20-sided dice he let her borrow. Glancing up at him, everyone crowded behind her in anticipation. Katherine let go of the dice and it rolled forward, bouncing off the pointed edges.

D20.

Holy shit.

"FUCK YOU VENCA!" She yelled as the room was filled with screams of excitement the kids jumping and hugging her sides. "YOU KILLED HIM!! YOU DID IT KAT!" Mike yelled.
"This! This is why we play." Eddie said with a huge smile on his face gesturing across the board.

The crew cleaned up, and excitedly exited the school building still cheering Katherine on for beating the monster. "I can't believe that Kat!" Dustin exclaimed again. The whole group on a high. "Me either. Thanks for letting me play guys." She told them with a smile. "You are welcome anytime!" The other seniors said before leaving to their cars. Dustin and Mike hugged Katherine again before heading home on their bikes. "Be careful!" She called to them, getting waves in return.

"So Queen Katherine," Eddie started making her courtesy, "Chrissy is coming over to pick something out. But if you wanted to hang out after, I won't be up to much." He said awkwardly kicking some rocks off the sidewalk. "I would love too, but I'm taking Lucas to the arcade early tomorrow morning. Plus I need to check on Max. Raincheck?" Katherine smiled at him. "You really care about those kids, huh? Yeah a raincheck works, but I'm holding it to you." Eddie replied, walking to his van. "I do, and you better! See you later Eddie." "See you Queen Kat." They smiled as each other before he drove off.

Katherine saw the basketball team cheering on Lucas. She skipped over to him, "How did it go?" "I scored the winning shot!" He exclaimed, making her gasp and pull him into a hug. "I knew you could Lucas! I killed Vecna for you." She whispered the last part in his ear so none of his new friends could hear. "Seriously?" He looked at her with wide eyes, to which she nodded with a big smile. They high five each other, before he got pulled away by his team.

Katherine debated going to the Wheelers like she had originally planned, but it was already late so she opted to go find Max's place. She knew from their letters that it was a trailer park off of Cherry Lane so she headed in that direction.

~~

 
Katherine walked up to a trailer that had Max's bike and skateboard out front and lightly knocked on the door, a few seconds later it swung open revealing a scared looking Max. "Hey, are you okay?" They walked inside and sat on the couch. "Yeah, I still have a killer headache, and some nightmares."

"Want to talk about it?" "Maybe later. I'm just glad you are here." Max leaned into her side, as they relaxed into the couch. "I'm going to go feed that damn dog." Max said, pressing against her head, as they listened to the neighbors dog bark non stop. "I'll go with you." The girls walked outside in their sweatpants as Max fed the dog scraps.

The lights flickered around them for a minute or two, "Um, let's head back in." Max nodded and they ran back into her trailer. "It's just a little electrical problem, okay." Katherine reassured her, both of them feeling nerves. 

They went to lay down when the lights started flickering again, the TV was turning off and on, and then a loud scream rang through the trailer park. The girls grabbed onto each other, Katherine softly pushing the young girl behind her as they looked outside her window to see the guy across the street running out of his place into a familiar van before peeling out of the park. "Was that Eddie?" Katherine asked. "Yes." 

The pair of girls stood away from the window, watching the dust fall back onto the ground. "Let's get some rest." Max nodded and they laid down together in her bed, slowly falling asleep. 

~~

The next morning, they woke up to the sound of sirens. Looking at each other before quickly jumping out of bed and running past Miss Mayfield to the front yard. Twenty cop cars surrounded the Munson trailer, the door swung open and Katherine saw the body of Chrissy on the ground, jaw broken, arms snapped, and blood where her eyes should be. 

Katherine put her hand over Max's eyes, but she knew she already saw it. A cop marched over to them, "You kids can't be out here, get inside. Now!" They rushed back to the porch where her mom stood in a robe. 

"Jesus." 

~~

Katherine followed Max and Dustin into the video store where Steve and Robin worked. "Hey, Steve." Dustin said quickly. "Did you guys see this?" Steve asked pointing at the TV. "How many phones do you have?" Dustin ignored his question. "Someone was murdered you know." Steve replied again, watching the news reporter. "How many phones do you have?" Katherine repeated for Dustin louder. "Two, why?"

"Three, if you count Keith's in the back." Robin told them, pointed to the staff office. "Yeah, three works." Max said, leaving to grab the other phone. Dustin threw his backpack over the counter knocking down a stack of tapes, the older teens yelled in protest as he messed up their display whilst sliding over the counter. 

"No! My tapes dude." Steve exclaimed throwing his hands up. "What are you doing man?" "Setting up base of operations here." Dustin answered quickly, as he pulled a few things from his bag. "Base of operations?" Robin asked.  "We have to call Eddie's friends, see if they have seen him." "Oh? You're new best friend Eddie that is cooler than me? What's so special about him anyways?" Steve complained jealously, making Katherine smirk. 

"I never said that-" Dustin started. "This is serious Steve." She said, making them look at her. "What, because calling all of Eddie's friends is an emergency?" Steve rolled his eyes again. "Correct!" Dustin yelled back. "Can you just fill them in?" He asked Katherine as he and Max plugged in the phones, and started dialing numbers.

"You know the murder that was on the news?" Steve and Robin nodded. "It was Chrissy Cunningham. The lights were going all crazy, and the tv went funny, then it all stopped and we heard Eddie scream. Like a real outright terrified scream. We saw him out of the window, he ran and drove off so fast. But this wasn't normal crazy behavior, this was... he was scared. Terrified. Because I think. I think something else did it." 

Words: 1341

// IS THE CHAPTER TITLE TOO FAR?

Justice for Chrissy honestly, she was so sweet.

Thoughts and suggestions?

Love y'all!