Eddie (self-insert x character)

Chapter 4

Taking my shoes off by the door I looked around and took in the environment Eddie had been living in the past two weeks. It was abysmal if I was being honest and I felt bad for Eddie just sniffing the place.
The air was sticky and smelled of mildew and cigarettes. The cigarettes were definitely from Eddie but the humidity and the mildew were from years of the owner neglecting the house.

Hearing the soft jingle of Eddie's chains bouncing against his hip coming towards me, I looked up to see Eddie approaching. Unsure of what he was about to say I kept quiet and gave him a small smile. He shrugged and kicked his boots off next to my sneakers.
"Guess it's kinda my fault this place is so dirty. I noticed you checking everything out and I promise it's mostly not my fault. Now this,"
He gestured to the pizza boxes and crushed beer cans littering the coffee table,
"No one's been here but me so I guess I got used to slacking off. You know how neat and orderly I am normally, of course," he said with a smirk.
Oh I knew Eddie's habits alright.
He had lived in the same trailer with his uncle practically all his life and I had taken enough trips to his room to know just how messy he could be if one let him go unchecked.
"I guess I'm glad you're here," he chuckled, snapping me back to reality.
Is this the moment he admits he's missed me?

"Finally someone's here to shame me into cleaning up after myself."
Oh. Not exactly the response I wanted.
"Oh please. You know I can't make you do anything you don't want to do. Never could," I added, hoping that a gentle reminder of our past would spark a deeper conversation. After all...he brought it up first.
He snorted and bent down over the coffee table, sweeping all the cans onto the pizza boxes. Grabbing the boxes with both hands he nodded towards the kitchen and I followed him. He tapped his foot on a cabinet and gestured with his head towards it.
"Pull that out for me, yeah? Trashcan's built in."
I nodded and pulled it open, watching the boxes and cans clatter to the bottom. Satisfied with his work Eddie rinsed grease off his hands in the sink and patted them dry with a towel.
Looking awkwardly at the trash drawer again he smiled and met my gaze for a second.
"One cool ass motherfucker came up with that. He'll be famous someday I bet."
I smiled and rolled my eyes, helpless to his ridiculous charm. He had broken eye contact yet again but I noted that he looked proud of himself for making me laugh.

Sidestepping me, he walked back into the living room and did a full 360 spin with his arms out.
"Check out the digs. Drink it all in, mildew and all. You know I'm actually kinda lucky," he said, dropping his voice one level above a whisper. I crept closer in order to hear him and he met my eyes briefly as he glanced around the room.
"I could've been stuck in my trailer."
Oh shit. There it was already.
I began searching for something comforting to say aware that my mouth had fallen open. He gave a false laugh and plopped down on the plaid couch and stared up at the dreary ceiling fan as it spun at a snail's pace.
Taking this opportunity to get some answers, I plopped down next to him and lay my head near his. I made sure not to touch him but even so I heard his breath catch. Ignoring it for the sake of research, I began questioning him as delicately as possible.
"So were you already planning to come here when everything went crazy?"
He sighed.
"Kind of. I don't know how much you know or what the story has evolved into since I left but,"
he sat up and looked at me, making sure to meet my eyes this time.
"I did not kill Chrissy. I promise you that. She was having some trouble. I'm not even sure what kind of trouble but bad enough that she came to me looking for weed."
He must have read my look of disbelief because his voice grew more urgent.
"I know. Chrissy didn't smoke. Shit I doubt the girl even picked up a beer at Jason's parties. But whatever she was going through, she wanted drugs to fix it. She seemed coherent when we spoke, nice as ever. She remembered my band and the talent show and everything. It was a nice moment."
He smiled a sad smile before meeting my eyes again.
"She was a sweet girl. Even if she wasn't I would never hurt her. Or anyone. I know you know that but it's harder convincing a town whose star athletes you've terrorized for fun."
I nodded knowingly. Eddie was only a jerk to them when they bothered him and even then he usually just made faces or growled at them.
He seemed to feel the question burning the back of my throat because his next sentence was
"Go ahead and ask me."
I feigned confusion but he looked at me slightly annoyed and threw his hands up in surrender.
"It's not like it's the question everyone's dying to know or anything. Just ask me."
"Okay okay, fair point. So what happened to Chrissy? I know you didn't kill her but who-"
"Who did? And did I see them? And why didn't they kill me? All reasonable questions that I don't have answers to. I didn't see who killed her but that's because I don't know who or what killed her. The way she bent was like...no one's bones should do that shit."

I sat up, my interest peaked. No information about the state of the victims' bodies had been released yet. Eddie knowing what Chrissy looked like when she died felt personal.
"Whatever it was could've killed me. That's what I don't understand. Why not kill me too? Why leave me to watch her die? And then of course I take the fall for it because it looks really fucking bad. But I swear I didn't touch her. The things that happened to her...I couldn't do that to anyone in a million years. It wasn't human. It couldn't have been."
He was frantic now, his voice trembling as he began reliving the event. He had begun rocking slightly while relaying it all to me and I instinctively put my hand on his arm to steady him. He stopped rocking to look at my hand resting on him but didn't remove it. He sighed and continued his story.
"Something was wrong with her the moment I met up with her that day even while she was being friendly with me. She was skittish when we met for the deal and I thought she was just scared of me or whatever but we talked through that and it was okay. She said she was losing her mind and asked for something stronger than weed and I was just thinking 'hell yeah Chrissy's ready to party for once'."

I nodded, taking in everything he was saying and mulled through how realistic it all sounded.
"She came to my trailer so I could get her the strong shit. I left her for 5 minutes and I come back to her just,"
He pulled his eyes wide with his fingers and rolled them back in their sockets.
"She didn't respond to anything. I tried snapping, yelling, clapping, I'll even admit that I shook her trying to wake her up. And then the lights started flickering and she flew up in the air. Like literally flew. It sounds insane but it happened and the next thing I know her bones are cracking and her eyes are bleeding and I just ran. I know I'm a runner when shit hits the fan but I think anyone in my position would have gotten the fuck out of there."
His description was so visceral I couldn't imagine he made it up. But it was so insane to even think about. Our town was odd but this suggests some kind of evil paranormal activity.
Who's ever gonna believe that over the easy theory that the freaky kid killed the preppy girl?
As if reading my mind he looked over at me and chuckled.
"Tell that to the cops right? See if it clears my name."