Hell & Back

Chapter Eleven

Chrissy was sitting in the passenger seat of Nancy's car dreading multiple things about this trip. She didn't want to go back to the lake, what if Vecna came for her again and this time she had no one with her to help, Nancy was cursed to. He could probably lure them both through the door. Than she thought about why Eddie would have came out here and than the fear of knowing they could find both him and Steve dead.

"You can't think about it." Nancy said apparently reading her mind. Chrissy let out sigh and tried to think of something good. Instead of thinking about everything bad that could happen she let herself get excited about seeing Eddie. "Your right." Chrissy said with a smile. "We will find them, they probably just went to get Eddie's stuff out of his car."

"Leave them alone for two hours and they come here to get drugs." Nancy said rolling her eyes. Chrissy had never done drugs, she almost did that was the first time she had actually talked to Eddie. She smiled at the memory of them sitting in the woods, she was scared of being caught by honestly anyone and Vecna was messing with her mind.

"Your safe. I promise." Eddie's words came to her mind. He had only been talking about someone finding them but he kept his promise. Now she was worried that she would never hear his voice again, never see his constant smile or bright eyes. The way he plays with his rings when he is deep in thought or pulls his hair in front of his face when he's nervous. The way he can never sit still and gets so excited when he's explaining something.

Chrissy had not noticed that they arrived at the lake. She looked around but quickly found that no one was around. She felt her stomach turn once again. Nancy was still walking towards the lake when she called Chrissy over. "Look here." She said kneeling down. "It looks like someone was being pulled into the water." She continued as Chrissy came up to her and kneeled down. She looked down at the footprints and than at the tracks drug into the ground.

"These are from Eddie's boots." She said low and shocked. She ran her fingers lightly over the spot where his tracks ended. "He took them. Vecna took them into the water." Chrissy kept saying it over and over. The words felt like poison coming out of her mouth. Vecna had them. "We have to get to the trailer park. Now!" Nancy said pulling her from her thoughts.

Steve and Eddie walked in silence for most of the walk, Eddie's back hurt more and more with every earthquake that hit. He struggled to keep from gasping in pain, he didn't want to slow them down. The last thing he wanted was to be here any longer than necessary.

"Are we getting closer?" Eddie asked breaking the silence. He stopped walking in order to speak, he didn't trust his voice enough while walking. "Yeah, you don't remember all this from earlier?" Steve asked in disbelief. "I was high dude, and I was more focused on the fact you brought an entire bowel of spaghetti with us." Eddie said laughing to himself. "Still a bit pissed off about dropping it in the water." Steve said joining in the laughing.

It hurt to laugh but there were worse people to be trapped in the Upside Down with. Personally he would have rather been home in bed with Chrissy while she talked about how her cheer stuff was over for the year and how she doesn't know what she wants to do after. She tended to leave her hair down now a days so she was always pushing it out of her eyes when she talked or she would get excited and her eyes would get bright while her voice got higher. He smiled to himself at the sight in his mind.

"She really got you." Steve said without turning around. "I don't know what your talking about, Harrington." Eddie said keeping his head down as he caught up. He wanted a cigarette but the pack he took from his van were ruined from the water. Steve just laughed to himself but kept pace. "What about you and Wheeler? You gonna try for that again?" Eddie said trying to change the subject.

Steve was quiet for a few minutes and Eddie was sure he messed up whatever little friendship they were starting when he finally heard him speak. "You know it's weird, I loved her like really loved her and I thought I had finally moved on but seeing her without Johnathan it's like falling back in time." Steve said in a low voice. "It doesn't matter anyway. She chose him...twice. Johnathan won."

Eddie didn't say anything more about it, honestly he didn't know what to say. Steve was basically living his own fear. Yeah know the girl he loves is his now but what about when this is over and she is back with her own people? Than what happens to them. Eddie stopped dead for a moment Love. I love her? I can't love her. I mean she's beautiful and smart and brave and just an amazing person but you can't love her, could you?

"Hey are you coming?" Steve's voice broke through his thoughts. He was shaking and not just from the earthquake. "Yeah, man." He called back and started to jog up over the hill. When he reached the top they could see Steve's house across the field. "Let's go home." Eddie said smiling and they both ran towards the house.

Nancy drove over to the trailer park while Chrissy tried to call the others on the radios. They got ahold of everyone besides Mike's group. Nancy suggested that they were out of range being at the old lab. Chrissy was hoping that it was something that simple and not that something bad had happened to them.

Dustin, Max, Robin and Lucas all came to the trailer while Chrissy and Nancy waited at one of the picnic tables. Chrissy wanted to go in as soon as they came to the trailer but Nancy had made a good point of saying that Vecna would be able to get to them easier if they were standing right near a door with no protection.

"Let's go." Chrissy said and led the way inside the trailer. When the door opened and everything looked the same as the night they came back through. The mattress was still on the floor which she hoped was a good thing.

"Something is wrong." She heard Dustin say. "The opening, it's smaller." Chrissy looked up at the hole. She could still see through the hole into the Upside Down. "It's closing!" Nancy screamed and Chrissy felt like the whole world was falling down around her.

Steve petaled the bike over to the trailer while Eddie rode on the pegs. When they finally arrived at the trailer, there were bats waiting on them. The screeched and charged towards them. "Run.. Run!" Eddie screamed jumping off the bike. Steve threw the bike down and followed suit.

The bats pulled and bit at every piece of flesh they could get too. The pain of the bites only amplified the pain of his back. He was trying hard not to fall over but his head was growing heavy and his eyes begged to close. He could hear Steve behind him fighting, he couldn't back down now. The door was just a few feet away, they could make it.

The door slammed shut as Steve came inside. Eddie had thrown himself down on the floor. His body fought him to stay down but he pushed against the floor and began to stay. "He knows we are here." Steve said breathlessly and Eddie only stared in bewilderment at the observation. "I hadn't noticed." Eddie said with a laugh.

The bats slamming into the trailer started to rock it. Steve and Eddie headed into the living room and looked up at the doorway. "Wasn't it bigger?" Steve observed. Eddie looked up at the hole, it was barely big enough to fit through. "It's closing!" They heard a voice yell. Steve looked at Eddie, they both knew the voice of Nancy Wheeler.

"Nancy!" Steve called out loudly. The hole was closing more and more. Eddie saw Chrissy through the opening. It was barely bigger than a microscope, they were going to be stuck down here. Nancy and Steve were trying to figure out a plan but no matter how hard they hit the sides of the hole it wouldn't grown bigger.

"Chrissy!" Eddie finally said out loud. He didn't know what to say. He was hurt, scared and going to be trapped in the Upside Down without her. "Eddie." Chrissy called back reaching out towards him. She was to short to reach the hole but he instinctively reach out too. "I love you." He said as the hole close. He wasn't sure if he actually heard her say it back but he sunk to the floor with the belief she did. Steve sat beside him as they listened to the banging from the bats.

"I love you." Chrissy said as the hole closed. There were screams of no and cries but she couldn't hear anything. No voices had faces in her mind. She wrapped her arms around herself and fell to her knees on the floor. The tears came down but no sound came out of her. "We will get them back." She heard a voice whisper in her ear.