𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐞𝐬 ── eddie munson

009

When Lola awoke, it was dark. The lightbulb was a shell, in bits on the floor and fragmented in sharp shards. Eddie was long gone, a sizeable dent in the couch remained where he had been sat, but he was completely truant, no sign of him whatsoever. The shed seemed to be even colder than it was before, puffs of icy breath surging into the air with every exhale. 

He must've gone for a walk, she thought, but at this time? That doesn't seem right. He's almost as scared as me. 

She proceeded hesitantly towards the door, being careful to avoid the shattered bulb. Before she reached to open the door, she paused. Surely Eddie wouldn't go out in such perilous conditions, not after what they'd witnessed. The weed had worn off, and the haunting images of Chrissy levitating had returned to chill Lola's spine. 

Just before she pushed down on the handle, the cold metal shocked her fingertips, and her suspicions were confirmed when she heard the distant, oh so familiar whirring of toy trains echoing on the other side of the door. She knew the only comfort she was lucky enough to feel could only have been momentary. She stepped back, the sound of glass crunching beneath her converse filled the room up. 

Then came a disembodied voice, deeply coaxing, calling out her name, "Lola...."

The voice in question definitely did not belong to Eddie. It came from outside, she stumbled back. Whatever it was, it was outside, and hopefully couldn't get inside. Blinding strobe lights began flashing through the windows and the gaps in the construction. It called out again, this time more angrily, "Lola."

She knew who it was, the man from her visions. He looked different every time she saw him, sometimes he was a burnt corpse, his skin falling from his bones as he walked towards her. Sometimes he looked like Billy, sometimes like dad, sometimes a disturbing, melted fusion of them both. He made it hard for her to stay away from him.

"Come outside..." he enticed, "I miss you, Lola."

She ignored him, looking around the shed for any sign of her nightmare penetrating the shed. "Eddie!" She screamed, but he was nowhere to be seen, in absentia. "Eddie, please!"

The flashing lights burned harder and faster, he called out again, slowly. "He is dead and buried, my precious Lola, and soon you will  be too. Isn't that what you wanted... to be dead and buried? To be with Billy?"

"Go away!" Lola whispered, her teeth grinding together, "leave me alone."

"Come outside and I will," he proposed, his voice running like smooth silk, before turning sour and resembling the voice of her father, "don't you wanna give your old man a hug?"

"Please leave," she yelled, "Eddie!"

"What are you calling that freak's name for? Have you been talking to him, Lola?" Now it sounded like Billy, but more strangulated and just so angry. 

She didn't reply, as every time she heard his voice since his passing her knees went weak. She knew it wasn't actually Billy, but Lola still longed to go to him, to run to his demonic clone and envelop him in a hug, to hold him like she wasn't there to do before as he took his last few breaths.

"Lola... I miss you. Come to me. It'll be like the old times, you know, just you and me." He attempted to lure her in, so aware that she was seconds away from giving in and letting him sweet talk her into coming outside. The lights were erratic, almost blinding to the point in which she covered her eyes with the sleeve of her jacket. 

"No, you're not Billy," she cried, "you're not brother!" 

"Stop hiding, Lola. All you've done is hide. From me, from dad, from everyone at school since I died. Where were you when I died, Lola? What were you hiding from then?" The windows began to crack, the light pushing it's way through them. The trains were getting louder and louder, and she swore she could hear the faint ticking of a clock somewhere within the depths of the woods.