𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐞𝐬 ── eddie munson

010

The next day was spent rather strangely. Neither member of the party knew what to say. Okay, cool, they'd witnessed some weird, unexplainable death and now Lola was trying to kill herself, or that's what it looked like. On top of that, they were both fighting a foreboding feeling that they were gonna get found out soon, and if they did, how could they explain what happened to the police? They wouldn't be able to do such thing. 

Lola was sat on the couch, her knees brought up to her chest. Every few minutes her eyes would close and she would drift into dreamland incredibly temporarily, as the minute she realised, she would snap herself back into reality, her head lolling left to right.

Eddie was on the other side of the couch, for some reason shirtless and showing off the shiny silver studs furnishing his nipples. He was sprawled out, a cigarette from his old stash hanging loosely from this lips. They didn't speak, although they wanted to. The only sound in the room being the rumbles from Eddie's bare stomach. 

For the millionth time, Lola slipped under, but this time Eddie reached a hand over and shook her knee to wake her up, not really knowing why but he just wanted to help. He did it the next few times too, and eventually Eddie leaned over to slide the ends of his cigarette between her lips, knowing it would keep her preoccupied for a while.

"This is not how I imagined my week to go." She said, flicking the ash onto the floor.

"Yeah, you're not alone on that one Hargrove." He replied, running a hand down his face. Lola tried to avoid staring, but Eddie the freak was surprisingly toned and she couldn't help but sneak a peek, even in her drowsy state.

Eddie looked around, accidentally catching her eyes. He paused, a red tint pinching his cheeks. He shook it off and stood up, and gestured for Lola to follow. She flicked the ash of the cigarette once more, before getting up and following him outside. She avoided looking back towards the lake, scared she'd get sucked back in to whatever was going on. 

"Are you not cold?" She asked the shirtless boy, following him aimlessly without question of where they were going.

"Oh absolutely, but I have to keep you entertained somehow," he smiled, looking back sheepishly, and upon seeing her mortified face, he threw his head back and laughed, "I'm kidding... god. I'm just hungrier than I am cold."

The six pack on Reefer Rick's front doorstep hadn't been touched, yet Eddie wasted no time in knocking. He began calling his name, but nobody answered, and it just so happens Eddie had already devoured all of his gas station survival stash, and he was too hungry to wait.

The Munson boy bashed the door down, his bare skin colliding with the door with a lot more force than Lola thought he was capable of, she jumped a bit at the noise, but eased up when Eddie smiled back at her. He waltzed in like he owned the place, calling Rick's name again and again, but it was completely barren. Lola followed him inside, slightly more hesitantly. 

She took in the looks of the place, it wasn't too shabby for a dealer's pad. A little cluttered, sure, but not disgusting. A strange groan came from around the corner. 

"You okay in there?" Lola shouted.

"He has central heating!" Eddie called back, a loud switch echoed throughout the apartment and a warm breeze soothed Lola's face shortly after. She silently cussed out the fact they had been cooped up in the freezing outbuilding all night when this dude had heating. 

Lola sat down on the couch. It was a lot comfier than the one she had just been on and slightly easier to relax into, despite the clattering around in the kitchen. She leaned over and grabbed the remote, switching on the TV, and to her utmost horror, saw her own face glaring back into her gaping eyes. It was from sophomore year picture day, back when she had just moved to Hawkins with her siblings, when everything was good. It was slotted neatly next to Eddie's picture, probably from his first attempt at senior year, where he was smirking into the camera with a lollipop stick in between his lips, his eyes rimmed with dark eyeliner and a shiny earing dangling from his ear. 

"Eddie, you're gonna wanna come in here right now." She shouted, turning up the volume of the TV.

He waltzed in, a poptart in each hand, smiling before he saw. Face dropping, he rushed over and sat next to her, handing her one of his poptarts. Sick to her stomach, she sat it on the arm, before listening carefully to the screen, a familiar man stood in front of a familiar place, a microphone being held in his face intrusively and a huge live sign hanging in the corner.

"I sat for about thirty minutes just chewin' over it. I decided to call it in, just in case, and I guess my gut feelin' was right. Now knowing what happened to that Cunningham girl, how she was found this mornin'... the cops need to find 'em and bring her back. Alive."  

The man spoke, scratching his head. They had found the body, confirming all of Lola's desperate hopes on Chrissy's death being all inside of her head. And Eddie's.

"You think Munson has taken the girl, correct? You don't think she had any part in it?" The interviewer asks from behind the camera.

The man shook his head instantly. "No. No way. When you see how shaken up she looked, well, it was obviously enough to call it in."

Eddie sighed, readjusting his position to accommodate his knee bouncing up and down erratically. Lola looked at him, his eyes were wide and he was chewing his lip so hard she was scared blood was gonna start to pour. The security footage of them at the gas station filled the screen and Eddie couldn't tear his eyes from the screen. Lola felt her heart sink, immediately trying to comfort him with a hand on his bouncing knee.

She watched as Eddie walked up to the counter and she waited behind, her tiny pyjamas on show to the whole town. It was true, she did look terrified, but not of Eddie. They had it all wrong. It was brave, watching his shaking arm lead her out, not malicious. Regardless of how he looked, he absolutely would not hurt anybody, and Lola knew that now. 

Lola grabbed the remote and turned off the TV just after the Hawkins anchor began to talk about Eddie as a main suspect, taking it so public so soon. She heard him sniffle, his eyes brimming with tears. "I mean," he strained, trying to hold back a huge wave of tears, "I guess I always wanted to be famous."

"Stop it, they're wrong. They'll realise, Eddie."

"Realise what? There's no other way to look at it. They look at me and all they see is someone capable of murder." He leaned forward, hanging his head in his hands.

"You're not a murderer. You saved me. I mean I saw her, you didn't-"

"Yeah, you saw her after it happened. You saw how she looked. They think I did that, Lola, they think I could've.. they think I kidnapped you."

"I can just tell them you didn't, and-"

"Lola, please, and say what instead? You helped me brutalise that poor girl? Get sent to the slammer? No, no, you can't, you can get out of this."

"No, I'll just tell them what happened, they have to believe us, they have to."

There was a pause. Eddie looked up and ran his fingers through his hair. His eyes were red and raw but he had stopped crying. "I thought you were a smart girl. Nobody will believe us," he stared into her eyes, her heart tightening, 

"I'm never getting out of this."

note;

sorry this took a week, i'm doing my final exams! but thank you so so much for all the reads<3